I knew that one of the religions that I would be interviewing for the month would be Judaism. I have learned that it is an amazing religion and I wish that I could have spoken with my interviewee a lot more than I did.
When I started asking people from that religion to interview with me, I got a varied amount of responses.
Most people didn’t answer my calls or emails but one member told me that I should take a world religions class before asking her again. Finally, after a couple of days, a rabbi said that he would be happy to.
Rabbi Samuel Spector has always been an active member of his religion. He enjoys working with children and families as a rabbi and is an advocate of social action and justice.
When we started the interview he told me that while he is representing his religion, his answers are reflective of his own personal beliefs and not all Jews.
“We are called the People of Israel, Israel means the one who wrestles with God,” he explained about his beliefs. “Our faith preaches belief in one God, but that could mean different things to different people, and as Judaism is both an ethnicity and a religion, that means someone can be a devout Jew through their culture and heritage but also a strict atheist.”
Samuel believes that the central message of the Torah is “that which is hateful to you do not do unto another.”
He also explained to me that Judaism is a particularistic religion. That means that they don’t seek converts. They believe in a universal God, “meaning that you do not need to be Jewish in order to receive the full benefits of God’s love.”
“There’s more emphasis on this life than afterlife and making the world a better place for all to live in,” Samuel said.
Samuel also has a different definition of faith than that of the Jehovah’s Witness and the Muslim woman. He believes that “Faith is something that is not provable but is our beliefs, hopes, and ambitions which drive our paths to growth and build character, providing blessing in times of joy and comfort and strength in times of difficulty.”
I was surprised to learn of his definition as I had never had thought of faith in that way. As I can describe it, faith to him was more a part of his life and something that has an effect on the way that he lives it.
This was apparent in the way that he lives his life.
Samuel said, ” I practice my faith in many ways; I wear a skullcap (kippah), I keep Kosher where I eat only kosher cut meat, don’t combine meat and dairy, and don’t eat shellfish and dairy as well as certain types of fish.”
He also explained that he goes to prayer services five days a week, keeping himself in constant study of the Torah, and many more things. This proves that Samuel is always trying to live his life in constant faith.
He then shared a story with me about when he truly learned about faith. Samuel talked about when he was a teenager, his parents divorced and caused him to struggle.
Samuel said, “I prayed a lot that my parents would get back together and that my family would be reunited again, but that was not to be.”
He started to wonder why his prayers were not being answered and why his hopes were being crushed. He struggled with God.
But it was only after he struggled he realized something. He said, “In that moment of difficulty, I found that things don’t always work out the way I hope or pray but that we can still find holiness and blessing in everyday moments.”
It is because of that experience that he became a rabbi so he could help others to know that “even in moments that seem like curses, we can find blessings.”
I am so grateful that I was able to meet Rabbi Samuel Spector and that he was able to show another definition of faith to me.
It is interesting that throughout this whole month, I initially thought that there were going to be slight differences in people’s definitions but I never thought that I would have gotten three different responses so far.
It will be interesting to see what our final interviewee has to say.
