Faces in the Mirror: A Jewish View on the World; A Worldly View on Judaism

Original Introduction to this column
From the Jewish Community Online: America Online

A mirror gives us a different angle on reality.  It is slightly off, startlingly revealing, starkly... backwards.  And in looking at anything from a different angle, often, we are able to see more than we could before.  We perceive reality differently.  We learn.  We grow.

So I will try to write here with smoke and mirrors in the best sense, to clarify, to amuse and entertain but, more importantly, to bend light in order to shed light.  In Faces in the Mirror I will try to paint a picture of the complex, confusing and wonderful modern world in which we live -- with a Jewish twist.  And I will try to look at the world of our heritage and spiritual tradition -- with a modern twist.  It could be about how an ancient prayer relates to a modern band... or how a failed campaign evokes Jewish values.

But whatever the topic, and whatever the angle, I am grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.  And I welcome, and look forward, to your response.

I believe that clearly... God speak to us as human beings.  A fundamentalist, however, believes that God speaks... clearly.  The difference between the two is vast and wide.  I believe that all of our lives are a journey to figure out what it is that God wants of us.  Weighing the words of our past and the world of our present, we struggle and forge the future from the place where past and present meet.  Whether what we mean by God is a push in the back that starts us on that road or a promise of light at its long end, my hope is that we can lift up our eyes to seek our highest destiny, to bring order out of chaos, meaning out of madness, life out of the swirling, bubbling sea of possibility.