Rules

I had just finished a fine meal of steak and mushrooms with green beans and rice from the D-Fac (see previous post), and had decided to go out to the smoke shack for a cigarette before I resumed the work I had for the night (still have in fact as I am currently at work). Anyhoo I'm standing their enjoying my marlborough menthol light and there is this E6 in the smoke shack, and as soldiers are want to do while smoking we are engaged in some light conversation.

Somehow the topic of our dinner choices came up and I made mention of the fact that I couldnt have eaten the lobster tail they were serving tonight no matter how good it was due to it not being kosher (yes thats right every Sunday here at the FOB they serve steak and lobster to the Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airmen, don't be jealous you havent tried it). Suddenly a light bulb goes of in this other soldiers head.

"Yah thats right, you ware that hat." (kippah are authorised to be worn in uniform under AR 670-1) "That makes you Jewish right?" I refrain from commenting that the wear of a hat in no way "makes" anyone anything. So, I say, "yah thats right". I find it far easier to tell people that I am Jewish, most people really don't want to get into the conversation of what makes someone Jewish and that I am a Torah observant Gentile who believes in Yeshua as the Meshiach. Long theological discussions are not commonplace in the armed services.

The next comment stumps me...I mean really, I lost the abuility to reply for like 30 seconds, and for those of you who know me that is saying something. "The only thing I know about Judaism is from that one actor." First off, that ONE Jewish actor...really? "You know that one comic actor who played a model. What was the name of that movie....oh yah Zoolander."....more stunned silence...All this man has learned about a religion with traditions going back some 6,000 years which arguably predates every other faith practiced today, he learned from Ben Stiller. Now I am in no way nocking Mr. Stiller or his outstanding body of work, but come on, he didn't even say Mel Brooks, or even Louis Black for crying out loud.

The next thing he says gets to the point of the post (I know, finally right?). "I sure am glad we Baptists don't have (wait for it) any rules, we just have to be baptised." "Really?" I reply "Just get dipped in water and your good to go huh?" (Yeah I said it, not proud now but I was thrown into a good amount of shock by the statement). His response? "Yeah well I mean you've got to believe, deep down in your heart."

I know from personal experience that Baptists have like a gajillian rules. And that is kind of the point. The Rabbi that got me started on my journey in the Torah, (Rabbi Ralph Messer, great Torah teacher, be warned however he is a Torah teacher not a pastor. He will not give you a nice 30 min message and send you on your way. He will build a case one brick at a time, and he will go back and check his work over, and over , and over again...you have been warned) once said that men who do not follow G-ds laws will make their own.

G-ds laws, his mitzvot, are infinitely better then anything that any man could ever design. He made us, and the rest of the universe. Who knows better then him how best to interact within this universe. Only Hashem is good, and therefore he is the only one able to teach us morality, he and no other. I realise the previous statement may have some MJ out their saying to themselves "Aha got him, figured him out this is a ka... a kar... (I can't even type the word) one of those people who believe in Torah alone and rejects the teachings of the sages". Nothing could be further from the truth. The Rabbi's are the descendants of the pharicees, and of them the Meshiach said "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, [that] observe and do."

I came across this statement while reading up on news about techelet (the blue strings made from the murex trunculus snail on the corners of the tallit) that gave me some insight into why G-d would give us a system of rules that would need studying.

"...the path toward religious perfection can permanently change a person only if it is truly a path. A sudden epiphany will overwhelm with a temporary intensity which disappears when the experience wanes. Proper religious growth only occurs in the context of slow and deliberate steps, each leading to higher and more meaningful levels of closeness to G-d. The absence of such careful movement and hard work will cause the experience of the divine to remain no more than an experience. The internalization of such an experience can only take place following a slow and painful - yet ultimately rewarding - process."

Wow that was a long post. Couldn't have done that on one leg, huh? Still, go study. Be blessed.