Host of this blog Vladimir Minkov Ph.D. is a nuclear scientist, published author and writer. He is the co-author of “Nuclear Shadow Boxing”, a scientific history of the nuclear confrontation between the Soviet Union and USA during the cold war and is the author of many books on Jewish identity and their role in our world, which explore his personal journey to discovering Jewish identity. Having lost much of his family in the Holocaust and finding his search for spiritual development stifled in the Soviet Union, Vladimir migrated to the United States in the late 1970s. He currently resides in Skokie, Illinois. In this blog he is exploring the intellectual understanding of major concepts of the Torah connecting the Torah with modern life – most importantly, to the life of Judeo-Christian America.
Intellectual Judaism is strengthened by intellectual Jewish individuals
Why this Blog is different
The very essence of being Jewish is concentrated in the concept of Jewish people as the Chosen one. The very essence of this concept implies that’s not enough to be born to a Jewish mother (to a Jewish family) to be truly Jewish – the Jews have to do whatever is required by their mission of the Chosen assigned to them by Supreme Power called God (or by the History for those who don’t believe in the existence of such Power).
This blog explores the concept of Jewish people as the Chosen one for those who don’t confine the definition of being the Chosen to a spiritual ghetto (synagogue, shtetle, close community) in isolation from the entire non-Jewish world, – the blog explores the concept of the Chosen for those who want to act as the Chosen in their public and professional life in the real world.
In other words, how to identify yourself as Jewish and to connect intellectually the Torah to modern Judeo-Christian life.
In particular, the following questions are explored:
- Is the Chosen’s mission to bring the entire world to the Torah, or to live by the Torah in the spiritual isolation?
- What does it mean for the Chosen to be created “in the image of God”?
- Is the Chosen’s mission to perfect the entire world for everybody – the Jews and the Gentiles, or to perfect just themselves?
- What is the meaning of being religious for the Chosen, and what is the difference of living by the Torah and being religious by Judaism?
- Is anti-Semitism an undeserved curse for the Jews, or a sign of a good performance of the Chosen people in fulfilling their mission?
- What kind of relationships are supposed to be between the science and the religion in the Chosen’s mission?
- Is Christianity an adversary or a friend of the Chosen?
- Does the Judeo-Christian morality exist with its roots in the Torah and therefore should be supported by the Chosen?
- What does it mean for the Chosen the separation of the State and the Church?
- And many-many more …
The answers to those questions agreed upon by the intellectual majority may constitute something what the devotees of the labels may call Intellectual Judaism – the morality and actions of the Jewish people in the real world without synagogues and rabbis, although with clear understanding that this statement doesn’t diminish the importance of the synagogues and rabbis.
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Vladimir,Please read the following link and then remove the link to your book so that these people will not be able to report you and get that removed
http://www.amazon.com/forum/judaism/ref=cm_cd_et_up_redir?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx3GH4KC0VK3SAS&cdPage=1&cdThread=TxAE6L3P8Z0UHV&newContentID=MxZWRVJBS8IBUL&newContentNum=8#Mx2XJ9SD4S3WRYU