unbelief

This morning, praying the Aleinu out of Gates of Prayer, I hear it afresh. One of the things we pray for is an end to unbelief. Here i realize how many of the people in my life have great beliefs about what is important, what isn't, what should be believed in, what should not. Skip the particular--and fairly new--beliefs of various groups of Orthodox Jews, what Jews think is important is belief. We firmly hope for the day when the world is full of presence of God and unbelief-which we equate witha type of blindness-ceases. In Christianity unbelief garners a punishment. If you do not believe, you cannot be saved and then you burn. Your burn forever. There are Chsitians who deny this, but that comes more from a willfui misinterpretation than from anything in the religion, I think.

In Judaism unbelief is its own punishment, It's own torture. God and glory show up where they are invited, and where they are denied, they are restrained so that unfaith creates more unfaith. In the face of unbelief we maintain silence, and so does God. We do believe in the great power of mankind. A torah, which contains the presence of God, is not a Torah unless it is handwritten by a human being. Torah cannot be followed unless in the midst of the people and by people and God cannot exist in our lives unless we invite him. Some people feel this is a rather upbeat belief, but in its own way, I think it's a little scary.