{"id":63586,"date":"2019-09-26T18:36:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T15:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63586"},"modified":"2019-09-26T18:38:22","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T15:38:22","slug":"discovering-millions-of-pages-and-new-old-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/discovering-millions-of-pages-and-new-old-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering Millions Of Pages \u2013 And New-Old Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In Judaism, I discovered, the questions are often more important than the answers. But many of the answers are quite impressive. It turned out that Judaism had deep wisdom to offer me\u2014teachings that have helped me be kinder and more honest, challenged my lazy and self-righteous assumptions about religion, and led me to view the values of modern secular society with a more skeptical eye.<\/p>\n

After years working in politics, trying to keep up with the twenty-four-hour news cycle in a media environment driven by the quick \u201ctake\u201d\u2014the zinger on cable news or snap opinion in a tweet\u2014I found that Judaism offered millions of pages of painstaking commentary and debate written over thousands of years. Judaism, I discovered, demands an appreciation of complexity and scrupulous consideration of opposing views.<\/p>\n

Having endured a round-the-clock schedule on campaigns and at times in the White House, I found that Judaism says there are limits. For one day each week, on Shabbat, Judaism tells us to stop everything\u2014 stop working, stop buying, stop trying to bend the world to our desires\u2014and simply appreciate and enjoy what we have.<\/p>\n

In a city like Washington, D.C., where everyone is always vying for power, striving to be in the elusive inner circle, Judaism emphasizes our obligations to those on the margins. Many of the earliest Jewish laws focused on protecting the most vulnerable\u2014widows, orphans, outsiders, and the poor.<\/p>\n

And it turned out that some of the hottest spiritual trends in recent years\u2014practices that have inspired numerous books and TED Talks\u2014 have actually been part of Judaism for centuries.<\/p>\n

The gratitude movement? The first word of the first prayer Jews traditionally say when they wake up in the morning is \u201cgrateful\u201d\u2014they express gratitude for being alive with a prayer that begins \u201cGrateful am I.\u201d And the Hebrew word for Jew, \u201cYehudi,\u201d actually comes from the same root as the word that means \u201cto thank.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mindfulness craze? Judaism is basically one big mindfulness practice, with countless rituals and practices (including meditation) to wake us up and help us be more present in our lives.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to overstate how surprised I was by these discoveries. None of this was evident to me during the two services I grudgingly sat through each year. And with those occasions as my main points of contact with Judaism, it had never occurred to me to look to it for answers to my big life questions or as a source of meaning and spirituality.<\/p>\n

I had thought I didn\u2019t need religion and that serious engagement with Judaism might be valuable for others, but not for me.<\/p>\n

It turned out that I was wrong.<\/p>\n

Excerpt from Sarah Hurwitz, Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life\u2014in Judaism (after finally<\/u> choosing to look there),<\/em> Random House, 2019, p. xix.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63589,"id":63589,"title":"Sarah Hurwitz cover","filename":"Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/discovering-millions-of-pages-and-new-old-ideas\/sarah-hurwitz-cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"sarah-hurwitz-cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63586,"date":"2019-09-26 15:33:44","modified":"2019-10-22 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