........Shalom Aleichem!......... Mazel Tov !.........My Jewishness........

Someone asked me recently "Why did you choose Judaism?"

Actually - I do not believe that I did choose it - *IT* chose me.

From a very very young age, I have felt a spiritual calling.

I realise it isn't very fashionable to discuss spirituality - especially as part of an organised religion - but it was a spiritual calling none the less.

From a very young age I prayed and I had a strong presence in my life that I could not explain.

To me it was God. To others it was probably schizophrenia LOL.

Thankfully - due to my time as a Mental Health Educator - I can tell the difference LOL.

My spirituality actually came from the wee scientist in me. I love science and I especially love astronomy and cosmology. Quantum Mechanics has always escaped me - Math was never my strong suit sadly - but I love cosmology and all that it entails.

Due to my passion for reading I have read most of the great and lesser books on Cosmology and the interesting thing I found is that nothing happens in isolation in the Universe.

Nothing.

This puzzled me.

If the Universe could come into fruition due to a once-only event, why was it that there was no singular phenomenon happening now?

Interestingly, I found the answer in the reply a priest gave me "Because G-d only had to will the Universe into existence once. Everything else he liked so much he made them in twos and threes and mores."

This answer rankled my thirteen year old brain at the time. I thought to myself "Bull. If there was one almighty power that could do this why would he only do ONE universe." Twenty years later, Dr Stephen Hawking came along and proved me right with his his multi-verse theory :)

The turning point of my spiritual journey happened when I moved to Melbourne and was sharing a house with two other guys, one of whom who was Jewish. He had a copy of the book "The Jewish Book of Why" on his book shelf. Being a VORACIOUS reader I asked it I could borrow it.

He said yes and it was the second most poignant moment of my life.

EVERYTHING in it matched my own personal theology that had taken me YEARS to come to a sense of comfort with.

From my views on the personal relationship with G-d through to the issue of deeds vs thought.

It matched my views entirely.

So........... what does this mean for me as a Jew?

I live my life with the belief that it is more important to DO good than to simply THINK good.

And this takes the form of many things - most of which are quite small in nature. Eg. Buying someone a coffee at work. Bringing in morning tea unannounced at work. Being there for my friends. Getting through my day with respect to those around me. Trying hard to live my life in a positive way. These are the foundations of my personal Jewishness.

One of the tenets of the Judaic faith that I try to live my life by is Tikkun Olam. Simply put it means "Healing / Repairing / Saving the World". It means that we should live every day doing things that can have a positive effect on those around you and make them and the place you are in a little better than when you arrived.

Nothing in my life is more defining of my faith than this commandment.

Whilst I don't believe that everyone should share MY faith - I hope that everyone would have SOMETHING bigger than themselves that they believe in - even if it is a humanist ideal of doing no harm.

I hope this has given you an insight into my Jewishness and PLEASE do feel free to ask more about it.

I simply wish you all Shalom.

Damien.
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