Rabbi Sim Glaser @ the basilica
So last nights “talk” from Rabbi Sim Glaser was on the covenant tradition in the Jewish faith. Not only was he dynamic speaker, he also brought up several questions which can inspire people of any faith background. He did his fair share of making fun of Catholics, which was also fun. I’ll start with two of his jokes, so you can understand why he refers to himself as “the inappropriate rabbi”:
1) He did what appeared to be a sign of the cross, got befuddled and then said “We used to do a sign of the star of David but we found it too complicated”
2) He talked about various covenants which exist in the Jewish faith including the bris ceremony (the circumcision of 8-day old male infants). While most Jewish men claim they cannot remember their bris, he said ” I remember mine clearly! I couldn’t walk for a year”
Jokes like these two created a really light-hearted mood in which to hear about the beliefs of another faith, and created a comfortable venue to ask questions of one another (we had plenty of curiosity ourselves!)
Following are some questions he asked of us that I found inspiring and revealing.
1) What “deals” (covenants) have you made in your life that you consider absolutely binding?
2) Have you made any deals with God?
3) If yes, do you expect any concrete results from God, or do you believe the deal to be more a mandate for your own behavior.
Even though the Jewish faith, at least according to Rabbi Glaser, has more of a bargain-with-God element than Christianity, I still found these questions to be revealing and interesting for exploration. I also couldn’t help but use my small (but growing!) knowledge of contracts in our small group discussions when talking about deals with God! Weaving it allllllll together…
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kabbsinmpls posted this
