There are several definitions of spirituality. One of them relates directly to how to define influential Jews, and this one defines spirituality as relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. And all of the 50 most influential Jews selected by Jerusalem Post have influenced the “human spirit and soul” as described in
http://www.jpost.com/International/Jposts-50-most-influential-Jews-ranking-2017-505385
The Jerusalem Post is proud to present its 2017 ranking of the 50 most influential Jews. This past year offered many contentious incidents, and there were several key players who worked hard to either bring people together or unfortunately, picked at stitches of society’s fabric, rather than building relationships and understanding. Our annual list chose to highlight those who share one unifying bottom line: someone who has the power to shape his or her community and surrounding communities.
-----------------------
Among the 50 most influential Jews there are a few rabbis but their influence is limited to helping former Soviet Jews, helping Israel Aliya and helping Trump resistance. There is no on the list the truly spiritually influential rabbis who are influencing America or Israel on how to use the Torah/Bible guidance on making the World a better place for everybody – not just for a selected group of humans.
In order to create a better world for everybody, the unifying moral foundation for this better world has to be established with which the “everybody majority” agrees. This unifying moral foundation should be based on the Torah/Bible guidance on political and social issues, which currently divide people and bring them to the brink of a civil war, such as:
· Should the American-style Judeo-Christian morality be the legislative guidance for the government
· Should our diversified religious organizations play a role shaping our legislative output
· Should the nation legislate its immigration policy on the unquestionable acceptance of the Torah/Bible-based morality of the country and help the people with alternative moralities who suffer in other countries to resettle in their own moral neighborhood
· Should the local communities be the first in helping the unprivileged – not the government
· Should our government be sharply curtailed to move the power from the government gods to Us the People
· And much more.
Unfortunately, our rabbis (and the priests as well) are not unifying and influencing our nation in all in the above.
| The Reform rabbis have positioned themselves to be a progressive wing of the Democratic Party, alienating Jewish and Christian conservatives, splitting further the Jewish community and the entire nation and making harder the creation of social and political environment that may unite the nation in building a better world for everybody. In recent years, the Reform movement has issued resolution after resolution in support of divisive left-liberal positions on almost all political and social issues. That is not how the Torah guides us. In the Torah, God called to Abraham and told him to treat the Covenant as the guidance for both the Jews and the rest of the world. God promised Abraham that his offspring would be a blessing to all peoples of the world. He and his descendants were to be an instrument of blessing and redemption for everyone. Abraham took that mandate seriously, even to the point of arguing with God for the preservation of Sodom and Gomorrah. That is why there are no spiritually influential Reform rabbis in the list of 50 most influential Jews. The Orthodox rabbis support conservative politics and therefore most of them support President Donald Trump and his actions aimed at “returning God and Judeo-Christian morality” to the Country. However, their actions are divisive as well – they are not providing spiritual support aimed at creating a sort of Torah/Bible-based moral guidance for government policies that may be steps in creating a better world for everybody. That is why there are no spiritually influential Orthodox rabbis in the list of 50 most influential Jews as well. It will be nice to see a group of rabbis – just the rabbis, not orthodox or reform rabbis – working on uniting the nation based on Torah/Bible guidance. ---------------------- |