It has been an amazing day at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, but nothing has been more moving to me than the six Sikh junior high students from an Indian religious academy who interviewed me about what it means to be Jewish. It got really interesting when their teachers joined in and what followed was an hour-long conversation that addressed everything from why I wear a kippah to the fact that at some point real monotheism and sophisticated polytheism are not only very similar, but may be identical!
As I write this however, Shabbat is approaching in Australia and I am still processing the encounter so actively that I will have to wait until Sunday to say more about it. Suffice it say that for it alone, it was worth the 12,000 mile journey. In the meantime, a quick run down of the formal presentations I am giving here. I share them because in many ways, they are about the big religious issues with which we all struggle and I am interesting in what you have to say about the questions as they are framed. So here goes:
On 9:30 Sunday Morning I will be addressing Who Do We Want To Be: Jewish Mission in the 21st Century. This session focuses on how any community identifies and pursues it’s mission, and while it uses the experience of the contemporary Jewish community as it’s primary example, the issue applies to any group that confuses it’s big picture mission, with small picture tasks e.g. improving people’s lives or the world in which we live, vs. how many people attend communal worship, or marry within the faith. The latter issues are significant (probably), but they are hardly the reason why any spiritual community should exist.
At 11:30 I will be presenting with Sister Joan Chittister and Imam Feisal Rauf on Sacred Envy, an approach which encourages us to examine both that which we love in both the faiths we follow and in those we don’t, especially when they are not the same things. It teaches us to acknowledge the beauty even of that which we do not share and to appreciate the unique gifts of each spiritual path. They are NOT all the same, and genuine interfaith encounter is NOT about figuring out that they are. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Real interfaith work demands that we see difference, celebrate what others do better than we do, and struggle with the difficult differences which may always divide us, without becomes divisive.
At 2:30, I will discuss The Digital Revolution and the Age of Religious Pluralism. Using Beliefnet as my primary example, I will explore the public sharing of our faiths and how that can be done while respecting the integrity of each of them. We are not merely believers or consumers of our faiths in this era of digital sharing and access to nearly ubiquitous information, but actual producers, creating and re-creating who we are and the communities in which we live. Far from undermining religion or religious tradition, it offers what may be the most fertile period in religious history since Judaism and Christianity were born in the first centuries of the Common Era.
On Monday, I will address what it means to be spiritual leaders, whether lay or professional in the 21st Century. What does spiritual leadership mean at this moment in human history and how is it best exercised?
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted December 5, 2009 at 10:01 am
What a stunning contrast, reminiscent of that between Jacob and Esau.
As noted above, Rabbi Brad is off globe-trotting , in the meritorious effort to cultivate peace and harmony among the faiths of the world, in the name of an inclusive, “love thy neighbor” understanding of Torah. Think Jacob.
Simultaneously, his BELIEFNET Judaism colleague, the Discovery Institute’s David Klinghoffer, is off cyberstalking (see one of his recent postings below**), hunting down his detractors. In the spirit of ?? Perhaps (the non-Jewish!) Kim Jong-Il.
Yes, rather than using this time to provide more individualized attention to his FIVE children – and thus needed respite for his wife- Mr. Klinghoffer prefers to be immature and act like a high-school bully: behavior in the manner of Esau.
–Begin insertion
**David Klinghoffer
December 3, 2009 4:00 PM
Because I can see the commenter’s IP address… also know this pseudonymous commenter’s real name. He doesn’t seem to realize that IP addresses are easily traceable.
In this obnoxious sock puppet’s case, his IP address goes straight to a particular place of employment. The same guy often accesses the Internet from his local public library system, and another IP address he uses goes there. Anyway, his place of employment has a website that includes a list of personnel. It’s not a long list, with only two Jewish-sounding names. A bit of Google-assisted cross-referencing leaves me without a doubt who he is.
–End insertion
My question: from history, who do we know who goes around ‘profiling’ Jewish names? Nazis. KKK, etc. Ha-maskil maveen.
posted December 5, 2009 at 9:49 pm
I am trying to work out how you can reconcile this united approach of all religions, when your own God (assuming it is the God of Israel)always emphasizes the blessing on those who ‘do not consult the Baals’ (in this particular instance see below, but throughout the Bible and Torah). The God of the Bible does not approve any worship of other gods. In fact this very text speaks of the opposite of this peace – pulling down the asherah poles and this resulting in God’s blessing.
It would be a very watered down version of Judaism or Christianity that would agree with anything else. This is what I believe is happening with the PWR. It is an attempt to water down the very truth of the Bible and bring to bear something that has no power or teeth in the spiritual sense. A kind of intellectualising feel good scenario, where everyone can supposedly live in peace. I agree with loving one another. There is no question about that, but watering down the truth for the sake of a false unity is absurd.
The Bible- II Chronicles 17: 3 The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because in his early years he walked in the ways his father David had followed. He did not consult the Baals 4 but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel. 5 The LORD established the kingdom under his control; and all Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, so that he had great wealth and honor. 6 His heart was devoted to the ways of the LORD; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah.
posted December 7, 2009 at 10:21 am
“What does spiritual leadership mean at this moment in human history and how is it best exercised?”
I think it means the same thing as Jesus said in the 1st Century:
Mark9:35 “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
Servant Leadership, is what lay leaders are uniquely qualified to perform. I am a lay leader in my church. I teach an Adult Sunday School class, and later today will visit and pray for a church member in the hospital. Yesterday, I joined our elders (all lay leaders) as we prayed for a woman, recently diagnosed with Cancer.
I don’t even like referring to clergy/laity as meaningful categories. To be a servant leader, that’s my goal.
posted December 7, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I have come to realise that yeshua is and was the walking Tora in the flesh. Dose that that make any sents to anyone that reads the coments, I know the the saviour of the worls was a gift for salvation to the Jews frist and gents are in 2nd place if that makes sents.