A Letter to a member of my final cult
It was an interesting experience at your home on Saturday for the Sabbath lunch.
I didn't find it to be restful though. I actually felt a bit restless. I also saw much deeper into the cult-like aspect that Judaism has become for those who are of the more 'religious' type with all their rituals. To be honest, I really didn't want to do the ritual 'hand washing' for a number of reasons.
1. It is simply a ritual that a handful of men created long ago somewhere in Babylon.
2. It's actually ineffective as a hand washing technique. By promoting this ritual we're actually teaching people an unhygienic way to wash their hands while at the same time making them think their hands are clean before they begin their meal. Perhaps the main lesson from Covid was how to properly wash our hands ~ a sad reflection of our society in which most never even learned the proper way to wash their hands.
I ended up participating in this ritual hand washing because I didn't want to experience the subtle mental judgement that occurs when one person doesn't perform one of the 'sacred' rituals.
The following is another example of 'cult-like behavior' that borders on being utterly disrespectful; We were sitting down at the table after 'washing' our hands and I heard the doorbell ring and someone come in ~ I assumed that it was your son but no one ran up to the door to greet him. In fact I was the only one who said hello and I'm sure a few others thought, 'Oh Reuben hasn't learned yet' of that other ritual when everyone is totally silent after we 'wash' our hands until that first piece of bread is cut and the meal begins which is another characteristic of the religious Jews ~ they love to talk and eat but, as in this case, they don't greet their own son when he returns home (at least until after that first piece of bread was cut). Neglect so often becomes a pattern that people seem to get used to
I must admit, I wondered where in the house your son disappeared to while we sat and ate. I noted that not even their son joined them at the 'Sabbath' lunch table. I wonder why? I imagine he's not really into participating in the cult rituals or cult 'talk' or spending time with the likely rather boring cult members. Seemed like just about everyone was trying to 'be the rabbi' around the lunch table. One man said what I am hearing in almost every Jewish setting that I have been in lately, 'Oh, when the Mashiach (Messiah) comes, then life will be better,' as though he is programmed to say that every once and a while and totally oblivious to the fact that he had come long ago but things didn't go so well for him or The Jewish people ever since. The religious Jews live their life with the belief that the Messiah could arrive any moment.
I have seen a great deal in my seven years of exploration of the particular faction of religious Judaism I had been exposed to. A woman recently told me that one time when she was crying in the synagogue on the Sabbath someone told her that it was not appropriate. I could practically write an entire PhD thesis and perhaps I'd entitle it 'The Cult-like nature of religious Judaism ~ their Messiah is the only way out'. I believe it is important to let people know when they are in a cult because cults are dangerous places making it practically impossible to actually connect with God/Hashem. I have never been in a cult that had as many rituals as Judaism. My calculation is that out of a one year period, religious Jews spend approximately 100 full days engaged in 'rituals' yet they don't have one moment to talk about the homeless man sitting outside the Metro in the heart of Jewish Orthodox land or about the old lady who has so few visitors or the man who simply has no loving place to go in his community.
I could hear the truth in your voice when you mentioned how different the Judaism is that we practice compared to those days before the synagogue had been created. At one point in history, a group of men got together and created the synagogue and many of the rituals that the religious Jews practice today ~ one of the strangest places I have ever been in. I wrote a letter to a friend with 38 points why it is cult-like and to be honest, I think there are more points than that. Imagine life without all those rituals. A life where you could be truly free to follow your heart moment to moment.
How has this cult helped you get out of the scrap yard? Out of the 9 to 5, out of the monotony of life in a city that is more like one big prison with invisible walls that most people live their entire lives within. I'll never forget something that I heard in my early days when I began exploring my Jewish roots at a local synagogue; One day there, I overheard someone saying, "The top women at the shul (synagogue) say that the reason there are so many problems in the world is because of the Jewish people." I thought that was truly profound and I contemplated that a lot over the years. I came to see that those women were one hundred percent correct even though they weren't aware of the reason The Jewish People are in such a sorry state. According to the second book of their holy book, Exodus 19:6,The Jewish people are to be a kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation. Yet, when I look around at the Jewish community, I fundamentally see no one who comes across as 'Priestly' ~ truly a man of God. Instead, I mostly see a bunch of robotic like men doing all these rituals but you can barely say a word to any of them ~ most of them I never even spoke to, yes, there is a clear 'hierarchy' in the Jewish cult I had been 'exploring'. And this is one of the 'milder' of the Jewish cults. Watch the movie 'Orthodox' and see how deep down the rabbit hole these people have gone.
And now we are going to focus on why The Jewish People have ended up in such a sorry state. To answer that we are going to return to that Passover (The holiday remembering the Exodus from Egypt) back on April 3, AD 33. On that first day of Passover our Messiah hung on a Roman Cross between two thieves. Rabbi Yeshua was only 33 years old and had only been teaching and healing for three years but his life was tragically cut short. Imagine if the Jewish religious leaders who were directly responsible for this tragic event had respectfully let their Messiah continue on with the work that he had been doing.
More specifically, the reason there are so many problems in this world is because a few of our Jewish forefathers, named Annas and Caiphas (Caiphas was the son-in-law of the high Priest Annas), paid Judas (one of Rabbi Yeshua's disciples) 30 silver coins to tip them off to where Rabbi Yeshua would be on that first night of Passover. They then had him arrested and called him blasphemous for saying that he was the son of God just like you and I and everyone else is. There are literally hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament that all point to Rabbi Yeshua as being the Messiah. Some, when he lived, recognized that he was the Messiah. A handful of others despised him and constantly plotted how they were going to try and 'do away with him'. They didn't like being called 'hypocrites'.
The reason why Judaism (and the world) is such a total mess is because it was as though Judaism lost their Messiah on that day. It's more like he was stolen from The Jewish people and nation ~ most Jews seem to just brush him aside as part of Christianity. Most seem totally unaware that the handful of Jews who were directly responsible for Rabbi Yeshua's tragic death were also the creators of Christianity (which clearly would not have existed if they had let him live his life to its fullest). I believe that we would have had peace on earth back then if they had just allowed him to live his remarkable life to its natural end.
Instead, starting with that Passover day of 3793, the karma for having him put to death has been reverberating through the Jewish nation and the rest of the world ever since. Instead of truly being a kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation, which is exactly what Rabbi Yeshua was trying to help people to achieve, Judaism became more like an ego tripping big boys club where it's like a contest of who has the longest beard or the most followers. It's incredible how many different 'factions' of this cult there are within Judaism each with their own distinct set of rituals, customs, ways of behaving. And so if the Jewish people are truly supposed to be guiding others to a more 'holy' life, they have to let go of all these rituals and start listening to what their Messiah was trying to teach the first time he was here.
The good news is that since the year 2000, his updated teachings have been in circulation. You can read them here.
Religious programming is an extremely dangerous condition. I would never encourage anyone to explore religious Judaism . Fundamentally, the most important thing that I learned in my seven years going to the synagogue was something that I read in the Torah when I was up north at my cabin; Exodus 16:29 says that everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day, no one is to go out'. After I read that I stayed at home to rest on the Sabbath and for the first time in my life felt as though I actually rested. I had never truly rested until I truly allowed myself to rest. If I had continued doing what so many else do ~ going to the synagogue on the Sabbath ~ I would never have truly rested which I needed to do to undo some old unconscious programming.
As a trained wilderness guide I had a duty to inform someone if they were doing something that was potentially dangerous, or even life threatening. In life, we are on a spiritual journey and it seems as though each of us has a responsibility to let someone know if they are on a path that is not leading them to greater inner peace and harmony.
It's easier to do that now that we have the updated teachings of The Jewish Messiah to help guide people in a way that will lead to that life that so many seem to be dreaming of.