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What’s the Point of Religion? (or, The Journey Inside/Outside)

September 25, 2015 by Patrick Beaulier

journey

Every culture has a story about a journey. The hero, who we identify with, leaves home and goes on a journey through mythic lands, encountering amazing people and objects along the way, and in the end, after making some kind of accomplishment (slaying the dragon, taking land, marrying the beautiful woman), the hero not only finds whatever she or he set out to discover, but also discovers something about his/herself.

You are on two journeys at once.

One is the journey we call life. It’s traffic jams, gossip with coworkers, phone calls from family, meals out with friends, pushing a child on a swing set, and blobbing on the couch with your favorite TV show. It starts when we leave the womb, and it ends in our death. It’s the stuff that makes up life, when we think about what living a life is day-to-day. That’s the external journey: the things that we find ourselves part of either through our own design, or simply by accident. For the most part, we go through our daily life without thinking about it. If one takes a few deep breaths and looks around, one realizes the world spins without us, that life goes on without our approval, and that-is-that. The journey on the outside is a collection of experiences that come without anything mystical happening.

Then there’s the other life, something private, something internal. This is the journey of our secret nature, or what some call our soul or human spirit. This interior is where the unconscious takes its journey, and the landscape is a bit different from what is outside of ourselves. This stuff on the inside is a stew of every fantasy, every wish fulfilled or unfulfilled, every dream and nightmare.

Our outer journey is about us living in the world. Our inner journey is the world living inside us.

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Thank You For Helping Me Grow Up: A Confession By Rabbi Patrick

March 23, 2015 by Patrick Beaulier

matisyahu image history

Yesterday I had the honor of sitting on the bet din of Rabbi Mitch Cohen, one of the rabbis who provides conversion through our sister website Darshan Yeshiva. It’s a true blessing to sit on his bet din because Rabbi Mitch and I have become friends over the years. But it’s a double blessing because the synagogue whose mikvah we use is the same one I converted in so many years ago.

It got me thinking a lot about the PunkTorah community and how much we have grown. We started as a YouTube channel. Then we had this website. Then we had a few that failed to launch. Oh well…we tried. A bunch of ebooks. Podcasts. An online synagogue and now, our online school and online conversion to Judaism program.

This was made possible not by me, but by you.
I have said for a long time that I consider myself the Chief Helper Monkey, not the CEO. You’re the boss. It’s your job to tell me what you need, and it’s our collective responsibility to one another to make that happen, whether it’s through donating financially, through providing content, teaching a class or leading a service. It doesn’t always work out that way, unfortunately. But we all try our best and there are many victories along the way.

On a personal note, the greatest victory that has happened over the years is my own personal maturity.
To be honest, there are YouTube videos that I did many moons ago that just make me cringe. I look at who I was and think, “gee, what kind of poser is that??” I’ve read some of my oldest blog posts and seriously wondered what was going on in my mind.

DSC_5081You gave me a space to grow up.
And over time, we gave each other a space to mature. Now, we are giving others a space as well. Thank you for that.

I have many dreams for PunkTorah’s future. I hope that you do, too.

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