How our rabbis can help strengthen Judaism and Judeo-Christian civilization

By VLADIMIR MINKOV
Yes, our rabbis can help strengthen Judaism and Judeo-Christian civilization. To do this, they have to include in their own education curriculums, and encourage the non-Jewish educational organizations to do the same, the following Torah/Bible-based topics.
The meaning of “we the humans are created in the image and likeness of God”
We have to teach everybody – Jews and non-Jews, religious and non-religious – what is the reason for us the humans to exist, and it does not matter how we have arrived to realizing that is the reason – through religion or without it.
One vital attribute of God in the Torah is God is the Creator who created our world not as something static and unchangeable but rather dynamic and permanently changing along the laws created by God Himself. Therefore, we the humans have to continue His creative work to build an always evolving better world for everybody, the Jews and the non-Jews.
Another vital attribute of God in the Torah is that His image is a spiritual one – not of any physical image a human may imagine. If it is so, the God’s image may be even a set of divine laws the violation of which brings the anguish while the respect of which brings the happiness. To avoid the anguish, we have to find those divine laws, both in material and spiritual spheres, and that is what we the humans are doing from the very beginning in our scientific and religious institutions.
Thus, the reason for our human existence is to communicate with God in all possible ways, study the God’s material and spiritual laws and build a better world along the lines of these laws.
The meaning of being “the Jews as the Chosen”
All humans are split into different groups. Each group may consider itself as a sort of “chosen” by God, nature or history to be different. The Jews are different as well. We have to teach the Jews the true meaning of being the Chosen - being different from the others in a friendly, helpful and inspiring way – being different not in an antagonist way. Moreover, we have to teach the others about the true meaning of the Jews being the Chosen.
As described in the Torah, God made the Jews the Chosen. The Jews are the Chosen not to rule over the non-Jews as the anti-Semites are trying to convince the world. The Jews are the Chosen since God made them the Chosen with the mission of helping the non-Jews to replace their heathen-guided traditions (which split all humans into murderous adversary groups) by Torah-guided laws (which split all humans into the friendly competing groups in all spheres of human endeavor). The Jewish achievements in all spheres of human endeavor demonstrate the Jews are successfully fulfilling their mission of the Chosen.
Thus, the reason for us the Jews to be Chosen is … to do what we have been doing from the very beginning and be proud of it.
The Torah and the Religion
We have to teach everybody that the God’s Torah is not a religion – it is the guidance for everybody, Jews and non-Jews, on how to continue God’s creative work in our world.
The people of Judeo-Christian world themselves, not God, created the religions – the religion of Judaism for the Jews (the Rabbis codified it in the Talmud and other authoritative rulings) and then the religion of Christianity (the priests codified it in the Christian Bible and other authoritative documents) to tailor the Torah guidance to their different traditions.
Judaism and Christianity define what is “good” and what is “bad” in their own unique way; various spiritual streams inside Judaism and Christianity define “good” and “bad” in their own way as well. However, the fundamentals of what is “good” and what is “bad” are the same, the Torah-based ones.
That is not the case for Islam since the Islamic majority believes that Quran demands the entire world to be Quran-guided and without the infidels who are the Jews and the Christians. Quran consists of two different parts. The first part, a nice peaceful one, was written when there was Islamic hope that the Jews and the Christians accept the Supreme Power of Islam and all become Muslims. However, when the Jews and the Christians did not accept Islam and did not decease spiritually, the second part of Quran was created - for the world where the Jews are eliminated and the Christians are second-class citizens. Unfortunately, now the first-part-Quran peaceful Muslims are silent and the second-part-Quran Muslims are terrorizing the world. Those terrorizing Muslims are not the strangers whom we have to treat justly – they are an enemy whom we need to fight.
Thus, we the Jews have to strengthen our spiritual connections with the Christians and with the first-part-Quran peaceful Muslims, and fight against the second-part-Quran Muslims who are terrorizing the world.
The Religion and the Government
We have to teach the duty of a government based on the true meaning of the state-religion separation. This duty is to prevent any one religious denomination from becoming an authoritative power in government decisions. This duty is not to separate the Judeo-Christian spiritual guidance from the government legislative work.
The government role is to reinforce the religious guidance on what is “good” and “bad” through government legislative work: in Israel, the guidance of Judaism; in other nations of Western civilization, the guidance of Christianity.
Of course, when a nation is replacing the Judeo-Christian religious values by something else, and for some nations that is the case, a government begins reinforcing this “something else”. We have to resist such “replacement”.
The Jews and the Christians have a common spiritual foundation based on the Old Testament and now, after many centuries of hostility and hatred can live in peace building a Bible-based better world for everybody including those Muslims who are willing to live in peace in Judeo-Christian world without trying to demolish it. The Judeo-Cristian world has nothing against peaceful Quran-guided Muslim countries, which are not trying to destroy the Judeo-Christian world.
Thus, the Jews and the rabbis have to resist separation of the Torah-guided Judeo-Christian morality from government legislative work.
 


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