Free will. There is a lot written about the responsibility of people for there actions. On the one side there is the wish to teach us how to live a fuller and happier life by changing our thoughts. On the other side the basis of the judicial system is this responsibility for our actions. The truth is that there is NO free will or responsibility. Here are three arguments to support this: 1. We are the product of only our genes and our memory. There is an ongoing discussion as to which of these is more important, but there is nothing else. (There are those that wish to include a god as a factor, but this doesn't change the lack of our own free will.) These two determine not only our behaviour , and our character, but also our thoughts and our preferences. It's true that we can choose whatever we prefer, but we can't choose our preferences. They are decided by our genes and environment. 2. The function of the "ego" (or soul or spirit on the true "i...
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Humanism In my first year in Urim I felt the lack of a source of inspiration. When later I moved to the city to work with a youth group this feeling was intensified. I felt that Socialism could be such a source, but it was old hat for many. I did not want to turn to Judaism because all three major divisions worshipped a false God. 10 years before, Time magazine had on it's cover the "Death of God". I wrote to the Library of Congress (U.S.). It is known as one of the largest libraries. I asked them if there were religions that did not worship gods. They recommended that I contact the Quakers and the Unitarian Universalists. I asked both of them to send me their ideas to read. I learned a lot from both of them. I asked both of them if I, as a Jew, could join them. The Quakers said that their followers are all Chistians and therefore this would not be appropriate. The UU agreed I learned that the UU had two parts. One accepted Jesus as a divine being and ...
Idealism A year after I arrived at Urim I was startled to hear a young member tell me that there was now no idealism in the Kibbutz. What was the purpose of a kibbutz without idealism ? I decided to think about this subject and I came to a couple of interesting conclusions. This was the first time that I did this kind of thing. My conclusions were: A. You can't be a realist if you are not an idealist First - who is an idealist. Someone who knows what his REAL ideals are and is trying to reach them. Whoever doesn't know hir (his or her) own real ideals or doesn't try to achieve them can not be a realist. Of course it is possible to be an idealist and NOT be a realist. This is true of someone who is not using realistic measures in order to achieve his ideals. So there are 2 ways that you can't be a realist B. There is a wrong and a right way to be an idealist. Whoever bases his idealism on trying to change others will usually fail. The correct id...
Philosophy of Science I wrote a paper on "Judaism without God" I mentioned that in our tradition every generation has to understand "God" differently. That is the reason why some prayers mention the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. They are not the same, but different. As a "religious" Jew I maintain that in this generation we should see "God" as nonexistent, and therefore we are forbidden to pray to IT. My religion is called Humanistic Judaism ( http://shj.org ) I won't copy the whole paper here. I can send a copy to whoever wants by post. Those who wrote to me about this paper only related to one of the first sentences and not to anything else in the paper. That sentence was "The philosophy of science is incompatible with a belief in "God". So I wrote another paper with a lot of footnotes of the sources of my claims that showed this incompatibility. The most important item was pseudo explanati...
Judaism without God I grew up in a religious home. I lead the prayers in a youth congregagion. I studied in a Yeshiva for a year. When I left the Yeshiva I felt that I would return to following the commandments when I was Bar Mitzvah. That didn't happen. Until the age of 19 I thought that anyone who didn't believe in "God" was stupid. It was so clear that IT existed. (I write IT because I don't think anyone really thinks that "God" has gender). In 1955-6 I participated in a training program, of the Habonim youth movement, in a kibbutz for 9 months. In one of the lectures the principal of the school told us that he explained to his pupils that the Jews once believed in a "God". but not any more ! I was shocked. How did he dare tell this to the children ? This could be his opinion, but to tell this to the children....... And he wasn't stupid. In the 3 years that followed I engaged in discussions with others that did not believe....
Entropy I had a course in the university about the philosophy of science. That's where I heard for the first time (about 1957) about entropy. I was very impressed and adopted as my purpose in life to fight against entropy. Entropy is the measure of disorder and of waste. It ALWAYS increases. That means that the world and the universe are deteriorating and becoming less orderly. It will bring about the end of the universe. Of course I can not really reverse this process, but I am aware of situations where I can resist. Examples are recycling materials, and saving water. The example of entropy that I often use is that of the garden. If I don't tend to the garden it will be overrun by weeds. If I want to keep order I have to invest energy (work). If I want to improve the garden I have to put in more work. The garden by itself will never become more orderly or even remain orderly by itself. There 2 laws of thermodynamics (the movement of heat): The first is well know...
Zionism and the kibbutz
My parents were members of HeChalutz (a Zionist group in the diaspora). In order to come to Palestine in 1935 using only one certificate, they got married. We returned to the U.S. in 1937, when I was one year old. All of my childhood I lovingly accepted the idea that I would return to Palestine. For me the resettlement of the Jewish people in Palestine and espcially on the kibbutz, was expressed in the slogan - "The Torah will again go forth from Zion". A couple of weeks before my aliya I met a group of socialists who presented me with a different challenge. They said that instead of going off to some small country in the Middle East that I should stay in the U.S. and work towards socialism there. I did not take into account what the chances of success were with either choice. I felt that if I listened to them it would mean for me an estrangement of my Judaism. I chose. I chose Judaism (i.e. my kind of Judaism - Humanistic, Socialistic). I, therefore joined Kibbutz Ur...