A
perfect world must include these universal values:
1. Respect for Human Life. In a perfect world, all people would be
guaranteed certain basic human rights, paramount among which must be the right
to life. They should be able to live that life without constant fear of its
loss and with certain basic dignity.
2. Peace and Harmony.
On all levels—whether communal or global—people and nations should co-exist in
peace and harmony with respect for each other.
3. Justice and Equality.
All people, regardless of race, sex, or social status should be treated equally
and fairly in the eyes of the law.
4. Education. Everyone should receive a basic education that
would guarantee functional literacy within society.
5. Family A strong, stable family structure needs to exist to
serve as the moral foundation for society and as the most important institution
for socializing/educating children.
6. Social Responsibility.
On an individual, community, national and global level, people must take
responsibility for the world.
This should include
an organized social network to address basic concerns such as disease, poverty,
famine, crime, drug-related problems, as well as environmental and animal
protection issues.
The
question is: Why?
Are
these six basic ideas intrinsic to
human nature? Have people always felt this way? And if not, where did we get
these values? What is the source of this utopian world vision?
Jewish Nobel Prize Winners
At least 170 Jews and persons of
half-Jewish ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize,1
accounting for 22% of all individual recipients worldwide between 1901 and
2005, and constituting 37% of all US recipients2 during the same period.
(Jews currently make up approximately 0.25% of
the world’s population and 2% of the US population.)
- Chemistry (28 prize winners, 19% of
world total, 27% of US total)
- Economics (22
prize winners, 39% of world total, 53% of US total)
- Literature (13 prize winners, 13% of world
total, 27% of US total)
- Physiology or
Medicine (52 prize
winners, 28% of world total, 42% of US total)
- Peace (9
prize winners, 10% of world total, 11% of US total)3
- Physics (46 prize winners, 26% of
world total, 38% of US total)
·
When I read the Quran I am
surprised by the fact that the Quran does not focus on Muhammed, Ishmael or the
Arab people.
·
Instead the Quran focuses primarily
on the Jewish patriarchs and prophets.
·
The Quran concerns itself primarily with the
history and future of the Children of Israel.
·
Thus the primary figures of the
Quran are figures like Abraham, Joseph, Moses and King David. In fact the
primary figure of the Quran is Moshe Aveynu (Moses the father of Jews) who is
mentioned more than any other individual in the Quran.
·
Many Jews are surprised to learn
that one entire "Surah" (chapter) of the Quran (Surah 17) is titled
"The Children of Israel".
·
So, I began to analyze the Jewish history and culture since the Bible period to our
times. Instead of focusing, as usual, on the disasters which struck the Jewish
people, I show the ways of thinking which developed in the culture.
·
I think that Jewish
philosophy is pursued by committed Jews seeking to
understand Judaism and the world in one another’s light.
·
In this broad sense, contemporary Jewish philosophy maintains the central focus of
classical, medieval and Enlightenment Jewish philosophy.
·
But a certain kind of traditionalism distinguishes many contemporary Jewish
philosophers from their predecessors: an effort to show how Judaism maintains
continuity and coherence despite historical change.
·
”Unlike many others, I do
not take a Jewish philosopher to be someone who is (a) Jewish and (b) a
philosopher, but rather suggest that Jewish philosophy is the attempt to provide a
well-argued and informed account of Jewish religious and cultural beliefs and
practices.”
·
The
Jews started it all
–
·
And by
"it" I mean so many of the things we care about, the underlying
values that make Jew and Gentile, believer and atheist, tick.
·
Without
the Jews, we would see
the world with different eyes, hear with different ears, even feel with
different feelings.
And not only would our sensorium, the screen through which we receive the
world, be different: we would think with a different mind, interpret all our
experience differently, draw different conclusions from the things that befall
us. And we would set a different course for our lives.
The Jews were the first people to find a new way of thinking and
experiencing, a new way of understanding and feeling the world, so much so that
it may be said with some justice that theirs is the only new idea that human
beings have ever had.
I thank Allah my loving Creator who created from nothing everything that is and
saw that it was good, and loved it; a Creator Who is more powerful than
earthquakes, floods, erupting volcanos, hurricanes or anything else in the
world, and different from them for giving me the idea to write this book.
The inside self journey that is taught in Jewish philosophy is
accomplished through daily effort to go through the varied levels of the mind,
to find within our own self the need for expressing in any particular way.
Again and again it is spoken in so many ways and so many days:
you are free while yet in form. Enjoy that freedom.
Use it wisely. Remember that there is no separation in truth.
Be not moved with all these things that your minds encounter from level to
level: a greater light is truly dawning within your being.
It is the delusion created by a lack of awareness that we and we alone are
indeed the cause of all things. Be a good dreamer and dream
a life of beauty.
·
Each day in every way, remind yourself that you are the peace that
passes all understanding.
·
For what you are doing, in truth, is telling the mind, for you—the
soul—already know. It is the vehicle your soul is using that doesn’t know.
·
Therefore, it is the vehicle that needs to be
reeducated, for it is filled with many, many, many judgments that are not
serving you well.
·
Learn to speak to your mind. Learn to disassociate that which is truly you
from that that you are using. You are not what you are using.
·
And what you are using—the mind—must be reeducated in order that you
may find the true purpose of being.
·
And so I ask you, “What is worthwhile in this life, or any life,
to lead or to be responsible to?” Your children are born, they grow and go.
·
And so do your husbands and wives, your brothers
and your sisters.
·
Governments rise, to fall again, to rise again. Money comes into your pocket
and disappears again. What is the security that man has in Life itself?
·
We all, I am sure, will agree: it is not our jobs; it is not our
professions; it is not our bank accounts; it is not our wives, our husbands,
our sons, or our daughters, our governments or ever our religions.
·
It is the Divine Intelligence that you are able to
be receptive to at any given moment.
·
It is the only thing in life itself that will not
fail you, because it is not dependent upon the fickle mind of man.
·
And so does it not behoove us to give some
thought to the true purpose of Life itself?
"Perception"Usually the word "perception" means what one sees, hears, smells, tastes, and feels by touch. Some philosophy does examine external perceptions.
However, there are inner perceptions, too: thinking and inner feelings are ways in which people also come to know themselves.
Therefore, it is possible to describe philosophy as the activity of thinking about knowing, or thinking about perception.
Everyone is a practitioner of philosophy when he or she asks, "How do I know that what I think is right?" or "What is the nature of love?" Philosophy is more than just being aware--it asks questions about how everyone is aware.
Remember that there is no separation in truth. Be not moved with all these things that your minds encounter from level to level: a greater light is truly dawning within your being.
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