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Kavanah vs. Keva In Jewish Prayer

January 21, 2013 by Patrick Beaulier

jewish-prayer-tefilin_960

Kavanah. If you’re Jewish, you’ve probably heard the word thrown around by your Rabbi, or perhaps by a friend. Perhaps you use it yourself on a regular basis. For me, it’s a biggie. Loosely translated as “intention,” and related to the word kivun meaning “direction,” living life with kavanah is an ideal I strive towards on a daily basis. I find that being mindful about why I act the way I act makes my life significantly more meaningful.

So I was surprised when in a few conversations, some people spoke to a vicious “kavanah vs. keva debate” that they believe is raging across the world of Jewish prayer. Keva relates to the Hebrew word “Kavua” which means “fixed,” “stable” or “permanent,” and these friends of mine seemed to think that making their prayer keva was tantamount to removing any and all emotion from the process. Indeed, Rabbi Shimon said almost two thousand [Read more…]

Filed Under: Judaism & Belief Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, jewish prayer, kavanah, keva, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, prayer, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

Can You Disbelieve Everything and Still Be Jewish?

November 4, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

I posted a video a while back saying that, in my opinion, all you really needed to do to be Jewish was believe in the G-d of the Torah. I also put in a few nods to the importance of diversity, LGBT people, converts, etc. etc. etc. You get the drift.

Immediately, I got this reply:

“I disagree with what you said about believing something in order to be Jewish. Being Jewish isn’t about what you believe. It’s about what you do.”

My secular friends all agree with this statement. Doing Jewish is more important than Believing Jewish. But I wonder if that actually makes sense. Judaism, it seems, is the only religion in the world that says you can disbelieve in every tenent of the faith, yet still be a member. It’s like saying, “I don’t believe in Allah or Mohammed. The Koran is made up and eating bacon and drinking whiskey is awesome. But I’m a Muslim and you can’t take that away from me!”

I do believe that actions matter. But intent matters, too. Remember the old saying, “it’s possible to do the right thing, for the wrong reason, and the wrong thing for the right reason.”

At what point, though, does it matter that you believe in what you are doing, beyond making yourself happy that you continued on an ethnic tradition?

Please discuss. I’d really like to know.

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Rants Tagged With: 3xdaily, atheism, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, Jewish atheists, Judaism, kavanah, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punk torah, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Religion

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