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CHAPTER EIGHT:Closing The Circle In Jewish Life Cycle: Rituals, Culture
And Us
Background
6. Values And Value Cycles
Yet, while the individual life is an object of great value,
ultimately it is seen as subordinate to a cluster of higher values -
and this is another consistent and important feature in this value system,
of which there have been examples throughout the different stages of the
life cycle.
The concept of Brit at birth, the idea of Bar or Bat Mitzvah at adolescence,
the reciting of the Sheva Brachot at marriage, and the idea of Kaddish
after death: all of these are examples of the deep acceptance of the concept
that the individual might lie at the centre of the system, but he or she
is not the be-all and end-all. There is something higher, says Judaism,
which must be recognised.
In the final analysis, Judaism is built as a series of concentric
circles or rings with the individual at the centre on one plane, but in
a three-dimensional whole.
The circle begins with the individual man or woman, but progresses outwards
until the point at which it meets G-d, like a spiral. The value of the
individual must be accepted, says Judaism, but so must the idea of a higher
and greater framework of which the individual is a part, an important
guard against egotism. At the centre of the system is “the individual-in-relationship-to-”
another entity: the individual in relationship to another person, to a
family, to a community, to a people - and ultimately, to G-d.
There are those who will reject the outer ring of the circle (G-d) and
those who will go further and reject the next ring (People). However,
if too many rings of the circle are discarded, ultimately the individual
is cutting her or himself off from the meaning of being Jewish. The meaning
of being Jewish is ultimately always relational and to reject that principle
entirely is not to be a Jew.
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