By Hank A. Honig
That's Just My Opinion

One Saturday morning, a few weeks ago, I went to synagogue for Sabbath services. This particular week, the section read from the Torah came from D'vorim (Deuteronomy) and contained two major portions of Jewish law, The Ten Commandments and The Sh'ma Yisroel, which has become one of the central portions of the Jewish prayer service. This all got me thinking about being a Jew, what it means, what we believe and who we are.

Before I go any further, I should explain that as Jews, we are forbidden to write the name of The Holy One, Blessed Be He, unless it is being written as part of a prayer or a Biblical interpretation. We use two methods to write His name in English at other times. We either eliminate the vowel, "o", by writing G-d or L-rd or we use the Hebrew term, Hashem, which literally translates as "The Name." As part of writing this column, I will utilize those methods in describing G-d.

The Sh'ma begins with the phrase, "Hear O Israel, The L-rd our G-d, The L-rd is one!" This is the central theme to our faith. We are the originators of the concept of monotheism. This is who we are, and this is what we believe.

In our history, the Sh'ma has been one of the major factors that holds us together. Rabbi Akiva recited the Sh'ma as the Romans tore off his flesh with metal combs. The Jews of Spain recited the Sh'ma as the Inquisitors put them on the stretch racks of Spain. The Jews of Germany, on their way to the gas chambers recited the Ani Mali, which translates, I believe with all my heart in the coming of the Messiah, but as they died, they recited the Sh'ma. Morris Cohen, the Canadian Jew who served as the aide de camp to Sun Yat Sen in the revolution to overthrow the Chinese Emporer, recited the Sh'ma as he lay on a Japanese chopping block waiting to be executed in World War II. It was his belief until his dying day that the recitation of the Sh'ma at the hour of his death saved him from being executed that day. The Sh'ma is who we are, and it is what we believe.

Subsequent to that opening, we delve further into D'vorim and are commanded, "Thou shalt love The L-rd thy G-d with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might." When the Torah speaks of our heart, it means far more than the physical presence in our bodies. Our heart encompasses our soul and our might. And loving Him with all our heart is what makes us Jews. This is who we are, and this is what we believe.

We are told that the words that G-d gave us on Mt. Sinai are the basis of what we believe. As a result, we are instructed to bind them for signs upon our hands and they shall be for frontlets between our eyes. We are to place them upon the doorposts of our homes and upon our gates, that we may remember and do all of His commandments and be holy unto our G-d. The most observant Jews wear phylacteries or t'fillen to honor this commandment. These are black boxes containing the Ten Commandments that are bound to our hands, arms and heads by leather straps. Even those of us who are not observant place Mezuzot on the doorposts of our homes. These, too, contain His holy word in strict observance of this commandment. We are told that we are to wear vests with fringes when we pray, and so in synagogue, we wear the Tallit. And those of us who are most observant wear a vest under our shirts with fringes on the 4 corners. We do this to honor The L-rd, The G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We do this because this is who we are, and this is what we believe.

When we read The Ten Commandments, we believe that the first one states, "I am The
L-rd, your G-d, who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Each of us believes that we personally were delivered from Egyptian bondage by Hashem. At the Passover Seder, we say, "This is for what The L-rd did for me when I came forth from Egypt." We do not say, this is for what The L-rd did for our ancestors. We believe that each and every one of us would have been slave had The L-rd not taken us forth from Egypt, and we honor Him for that. We do this because this is who we are, and this is what we believe.

We are told that we are not to make graven images. We do not worship statues of Saints or create images of G-d. We worship and honor Hashem with all our hearts.
We do this because this is who we are, and this is what we believe.

We are told that there is only one G-d, and at the end of D'vorim it is made very clear that he would never look at another man, born of woman, eye to eye, as he looked at Moses. We accept this without question. If we did not accept Hashem at his word, then we could not accept him as our G-d. We do accept him at his word, because this is who we are, and this is what we believe.

Some months ago, a group of Christian missionaries were arrested for preaching in an Arab country where the practice of Christianity was banned. When asked how they got into the country to preach, they stated that they had lied about their purpose when entering that country. As Jews we take literally the commandment against bearing false witness. To accept a convert as a result of falsehood, denies the validity of that conversion. We do not actively seek converts as Jews. It is our belief that for an outsider to join our faith, they must come to it honestly and without reservation. It is not easy to be a Jew. In order to convert, one must take months of classes to learn about who we are and what we believe. Once you do convert, however, you become as if you had always been a Jew, and you are fully accepted into our faith. We accept converts in this manner because this is who we are, and this is what we believe.

The Commandments tell us to "Honor the seventh day as a Sabbath unto The L-rd, for in six days did He labor and create the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh Day, He rested. We honor the seventh day, not the first, as our Sabbath, because Hashem commanded us to do so. We do this because this is who we are, and this is what we believe.

Following the reading of the sedre, the weekly Torah portion, we read the Haftorah, which is a portion of Scripture from either The Prophets or The Writings. This past week, the Haftorah section we read was called Nachamu Nachamu (Console ye, Console ye). It is the section of Isaiah in which The Prophet tells us of the coming of The Messiah. We are told that when The Messiah comes we will return to a state of paradise. As Jews, we await the coming of The Messiah patiently. We know that we have not returned to Gan Eden (The Garden of Eden), because evil continues to exist in this world, and we know that when The Messianic Age arrives, there will no longer be terrorists destroying buildings and killing innocent people. Hashem will only send Moshiach (The Messiah) at such time as the world is ready for redemption. That is why we do not believe in the Christian concept of The Messiah, because it is quite obvious to us that this is not Gan Eden. We understand this because this is who we are, and this is what we believe.

Part of our tradition is found in the Midrash, a series of allegorical tales relating to Torah. The Midrash tells us that until the time of Noach (Noah), Hashem frequently walked on earth in the guise of a human. We are also told that Hashem was so incensed by the evil in the time of Noach that he said he would never come to earth as a man again. We do not accept the notion of the Trinity because G-d in order to be G-d would have seen to the thousandth generation and would have known that he would have come to earth as Jesus. This knowledge makes us who we, are and it is certainly what we believe.

The Midrash also tells us that we are the chosen people because we accepted G-d's will without question. When he wanted mankind to have the Ten Commandments, he went to different people to offer them. The first group he approached asked what was in these commandments. His response was, Thou Shalt Not Steal. They responded that they could not accept G-d's offer as they made their livings by stealing. Similar responses came from other groups when The L-rd said that the Commandments forbid Murder and Adultery. Only the Jews accepted them without question. Only the Jews, therefore, became His Chosen People. That is who we are. That is what we believe.

We are Jews. We do not ask our Christian friends to accept our beliefs. We only ask them to understand that ours are different from theirs. We do ask them to understand, however, that a belief in Judaism cannot coexist with a belief that Jesus was The Messiah. We are not in Gan Eden, and frankly to us it's a one shot deal. There are no second chances.

And that's not just my opinion.

IT IS WHO WE ARE, AND IT IS WHAT WE BELIEVE!