Good evening everyone, it is an honor to be here again for the 4th annual World Religions Conference. This is my second time representing Judaism. This year’s topic is religious founders as defenders of religious freedom. It is an interesting topic especially regarding Judaism, a religion that is very diverse and encompassing of many types of people and many recognizable leaders, even though there aren’t that many Jews. What about the topic, will I be able to transmit that is a message that is representative of Judaism?
I will break up the talk into two parts, the first being religious founders, that is who are these people? And the second is a discussion on religious freedom. Then I will attempt to tie everything together. I would like to point out that my explanations are from a Jewish perspective, more specifically from an orthodox Jewish perspective and influenced by Hasidic philosophy.
What is a religious founder?
There are two kinds of people in the religion (there are others but I’d like to discuss two). Recognized leaders who dedicate their lives to the service of religion and community and people themselves who dedicate their lives to the religion and community. A leader is someone who is recognized and accepted as someone who is strengthening and making people within the community aware of how to attain higher spiritual growth. A religious founder is someone themselves who recognizes their heritage, faith, and religion and embarks on empowering and growing that part of their life-even if they’re not recognized as a leader. No matter which sect, denomination, place, etc. it is part of a personal journey. Historically, recognized leaders such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses etc. each were leaders in their time and relayed and developed the word of God in their time. This leadership continued with Talmudic sages, poets, scholars etc. each contributing a part for how to lead and ensure followers remained fervently attached in their generation to God. The rest of the people were servants, following in the way of God according to Judaism.
The servants, the general mass, can interject themselves or look to their leaders for advice on how to achieve personal moral and spiritual goals that fits within their realm of religious observance, and is appropriate to their generation. Essentially, religious founders are arguably all people within the religion who desire the continuity and strengthening their faith and practice for them to continue on for generations. This is different from the leaders who make changes, adaptations and modernize the religion to ensure its constituents continue in the way of the religion. Throughout history, the role of the leader took on many facets. Throughout history, these figures have been prolific as well as detrimental, but in all impactful.
Again, someone who is serious about their religion and desires to perfect themselves in the way of God is a religious founder (they can be a leader or follower). Every constituent is a religious founder because they are the key link to transferring the religion’s faith and practice to the next generation. I am a founder of the religion for my children as my parents were to me. In each generation we find ourselves presented with unique challenges and environments that requires our full heart and soul in order to precipitate the purpose and goals of the religion.
This is important because it leads to the next part of the topic “defenders of religious freedom”. What is religious freedom? What does that look like? Are we talking about me letting my neighbor be free to practice whatever religion they’d like? The definition is interesting and I will try my best to elaborate on what I think this means. In 2013 in Canada, it is hard to think about what a lack of religious freedom means. That is, it is difficult for me to think about a time or a place where I am not allowed to outwardly be a Jew. So I think the pertinence of this statement as it applies today is that the definition of freedom has taken on a new dimension in relation to modern Canada. The lesson for this comes from looking at the anti religious society of communist Russia before the fall of the “iron curtain”.
To begin, one must understand that freedom has a place. Freedom applies to mind, body, and soul. One may not have freedom of body (i.e. they are incarcerated) but in their mind and their soul they are completely free.
The story from communist Russia is as follows. There was a Hasid named Rabbi Mendel Futerfas, Stalin sentenced him to a work camp in Siberia because he was caught trying to educate Jewish children. While incarcerated he told himself that every day and every even that happens to him is a lesson because it is by Gods will that he is in jail. One of the inmates was a tightrope walker, and entertainer, who was sentenced to Siberia as well for whatever reason. He and Mendel were once speaking and Mendel asked him how he can accomplish the feat of tightrope walking. How is it possible to walk across a narrow wire very high in the sky. The tightrope walker answered the trick of his trade which was, from the moment he stepped on the rope, he never looked down. He always looked ahead. Mendel heard this and applied the lesson to himself. Practicing religion in Communist Russia is like a tightrope, if look around, and see the threat of the environment, it would be easy to concede and “fall off the rope” and succumb and give up practicing. The lesson is to look ahead and not to get swayed by the threat, and look at the goal and follow along the path. One’s spirit is never locked up and the goal of spirituality as at the destination, they trick is to keep looking ahead.
There is an expression, “the place where a person’s mind is found, that is where he is”. Even though physically you can be incarcerated or under a threat, if your mind is free then you can keep on whatever you want. Dreams, hopes, goals, religious convictions, all belong to every human no matter where they find themselves.
There is another story from Communist Russia, where a quorum of 10 men made a promise that they are willing to die for continuing to educate Jewish children. Many of the men were either killed, thrown in jail, tortured, or lost never to be heard of again. It is unclear why they were willing to die for a cause that as Jews we don’t believe in dying for. To explain, there are only three things in Jewish law that we are allowed to die for if someone is “holding a gun to your head”, none of which are education. Yet, these people needed and wanted to die for this cause. They felt that if they didn’t put their life on the line, the religion could potentially cease. They felt that even if they would put their body-physical state in jeopardy it would be worthwhile in relation to the plausibility that by not educating the Jewish children, it would potentially add to the religion not continuing. Because freedom is a physical emotional and mental state, we have to strive for the emotional and mental state to be free even if the physical freedom may be limited.
In summary, we have leaders who help us along the way in our generations on the journey of attaining spiritual fulfillment. The leaders can guide us and help us along the way in the time of whether our minds, bodies, and souls are free or are not. But we are the founders, the ones, who do continue to practice and hold the religion close to our heart and makes it important to us and our children.