Judaism

 Now one religion that potentially contradicts this view of religion as removing attachment to the false idol of self is Judaism.

Judaism has two interpretations. A Jew is anyone who follows the law of Moses. Or a Jew is someone who is descended from Abraham. Clearly they are not compatible interpretations. Which is correct?

 God said that The Jews were the chosen people, the people of God. Did He mean those who follow His Law are chosen or did he mean the descendants of Abraham are chosen.

In the interpretation of Religion recently put forward in this blog God meant that anyone who follows His Law is chosen. God says in Exodus 20:6 he is "shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." No mention of their birth, mercy comes to those that keep the commandments. Jesus indeed overcomes a prejudice he has against Gentiles to realise that God speaks to all people. It seems at the time of Jesus the Jews did believe that they were chosen based on birth rather than actions, beliefs and practice. Jesus overturns this as he does many aspects of Jewish belief at the time.

So it seems that Jews do hold to the idea that they are chosen by virtue of who they are. Alarm bells. They have erected a false idol called "The Jew". How incredibly ironic given everything that Moses did to stop people worshipping false idols. So in the mind of a Jew today there is a statue and that statue is Jewish. And they attach to that statue as though it was themselves. They are actually in league with the devil. How very ironic.

It seems then that while the "Jews" complain a lot about imprisonment from Babylonians to Egyptians to Nazis the real prison that they cannot escape from is attachment to the idea they are Jewish. I used to work with a Jew once and the very first thing he said when we met was "hello I'm Dan and unfortunately I'm a Jew." No one I ever met from anywhere in the world ever gave me their tribe alongside their name. I think he really believed he was a Jew. It was part of the statue of false identity that he carried within himself. It may well be that the last people on Earth to enlighten will be those who identity with being Jewish. It is such a gold idol in their hearts that they will never be able to let it go. It seems Moses failed. Being Jewish IS the golden calf. It never got destroyed.

Now there must be Jews who reject this. Who see their Jewishness existing just in the Law of God. There is nothing else but the Law of God. How crazy to think God cares for blood lines. Yet the Pentateuch contains continual reference to this belief. The lineage from Abraham is central to God's Will. It is so powerful that even God obeys it! When Rebekah tricks Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau, God apparently obeys this treachery and the lineage follows Jacob. Does this actually sound right that the creator of the universe should obey a treacherous lie? This isn't even bloodline in fact.

Another story which really captures this I remember but do not have time to check now. I believe it is Rebekah but could be later. She is sent away until the time when she should marry Isaac. In this time Abraham comes to sleep with her without knowing who she is. When he discovers that she has been unfaithful he demands that she is stoned to death. But she produces his staff that he left behind and he suddenly realises that it is him who broke her virginity. He calls off the stoning and all is forgiven. Now this is a perfect illustration of false self. This is quintessentially the whole problem. Abraham is attached to a false sense of self as much as any ordinary person. There is nothing spiritual about him here. When faced with his own actions he treats them differently from whether they were done by someone else. How is that possible if you see the world correctly. This is the very essence of criminality. A criminal never sees the wrong in what they do, they only the wrong is what other people do. And when that wrong turns out to be by them then they ignore it. This is the essence of evil. But it is displayed by the father of faith! How ignorant can the Pentateuch be. Now it would take considerably more expertise than I have to show whether Jesus disagreed with any of the Torah. It seems that Jesus' view was that the Torah was the Word of God and that the Church had misunderstood it. Yet when I read the early books I find so much that contradicts any wisdom to be found almost anywhere else.

p.s. people often criticise Abraham for his willingness to sacrifice his son. But that makes sense when you consider that he was selfless enough to give up his own son when commanded by God. Something Christians recognise when God himself did the same with Jesus. So this story is actually very much in keeping with the Religious view. Although if he was really committed to selfless action then offering himself up as a sacrifice is an even better test than his son. What if God had ordered Abraham to sacrifice himself: how much greater a father of faith! Ordinary soldiers do this all the time. And in Indian mythology this happens all the time too. Even the rabbit in the moon achieved this level of faith. So there are elements of truth here but for a lot of these books I find I have to struggle to get anything from them.