let's bring on Rabbi Taylor Rabbi Taylor thank you for coming on the show thanks so much for having me Michael so we we started theology Thursday just a few weeks ago we're cycling through different religions religious traditions and uh one topic that keeps coming up though and maybe it's just because of the age that we live in is the occult demons Weir the UFO stuff in the air all this kind of a stuff and I always prided myself on knowing thinking that I knew the Jewish view on things because I grew up in New York
virtually all of my friends were Jewish I've been to many a bar mitzvah I lived in Los Angeles I so I thought and then I was talking to a Jewish friend of mine the other day and she said Michael you know how the Jews believe in reincarnation and I said wait what she said yeah yeah the Jews believe in reincarnation I heard this from a a rabbi she said blah blah blah I said wait she how the hell is there a she Rabbi hold on wait what what is this so I realized I don't know
anything about Judaism and now I have your book a Jewish Guide to the mysterious but even better than that I've got you on here to give me the answers directly so do Jews believe in reincarnation why can ladies be rabbis and then more importantly to the topic at hand what's all the UFO demon stuff all right so um let's start with reincarnation I guess so so one of the big misnomers I think about Judaism is we'll call the people of the book and it's interesting because really uh the Hebrew Bible the way it was meant
to be given over generationally was orally like the the Hebrew Bible is basically like the the notes or the um Cliff Notes I guess that a professor would hand out an outline of the of the lecture and then the then the the the college professor gives the lecture and that's if you didn't attend the lecture and you didn't hear the whole class you may have a you know basic understanding of what went on in the class but you don't really um you don't really get the full capacity of it so the the main body of
Jewish thought actually was carried on orally using the Hebrew Bible obviously as the as the as the index or as the uh as the cliff notes but the discussion so the the what I'm trying to what I'm trying to bring out is this idea that some of the concepts in Judaism are not very clearly written in the Hebrew Bible even the concept of afterlife is not really clearly written in the Hebrew Bible uh reward and Punishment in the Hebrew Bible is essentially if you do it you're supposed to do you're going to get the rain
when you're supposed to get it and if you don't do what you're supposed to do you're not going to get the rain when you're supposed to get it there's there's not a whole lot of spirituality and mysticism it's the the Hebrew Bible talks directly clearly and practically to people from all ages and all time something that a farmer 3,000 years ago could clearly relate to I better do the right thing and something where you know us in our in our modern day we can relate to it in a different sort of way on a different
sort of level um and and still gain an understand and be motivated to do the right thing so as far as reincarnation is concerned this is something that uh the Jewish Mystics in particular have have has has been a has been a core of Jewish mystical theology for for quite some time um there's there are commentaries in the Torah text that that discuss uh various instances where you where you would see reincarnation so for example um after Cain and Abel have their squabble and Cain kills Abel the the the what what the the words that
the the the Hebrew Bible uses in the original Hebrew is that when Seth is Born the who comes that it says that he stood in Abel's place and some of the Jewish Mystics interpret that to mean that he was actually sort of a reincarnation fulfilling the mission that Abel so there there there are there are places where we see this in Jewish tradition I I think I I think a lot of people like to focus on sort of the mysterious stuff because living in a living practically and living morally is a lot harder and so
like I'd rather talk about angels and demons and aliens and all this other stuff because it's it's just fun to talk about uh and it's and it's kind of just theoretical uh in and so that's that's sort of why Focus in that you know I was reading in the nicam mckian ethics last night you know good old Uncle Aristotle says that uh you know it's fine to read about virtue but virtue is is practical you know moral virtue is a practical thing it's about habit you just have to do it if you just sit there
and kind of muse about it and read about it and banter back and forth that's not going to get you where you need to go you just need to actually do the day in day out work of growing in virtue which is a little less sexy but uh you know ultimately more conducive to your flourishing that's our society though we like we like going where it's just gonna keep my mind entertained so right Angels demons reincarnation lots of fun right so but on that point you do you do write about it in your book and
the the my main interest in it is not purely speculative right now it's because this alien stuff is taking over the scop media sorry is taking over the uh you know important hearings at the US Congress and so I think it's all a bunch of nonsense and I think that either people are hallucinating or they're seeing weapons you know as has happened you know secret weapons programs or I I do believe in spiritual realities I believe in angels and demons and spiritual combat uh so maybe they're experiencing some of that as the occult grows in
our culture as a traditional religious practice uh disappears and uh but also I think it's just kind of like a scop and a distraction so what is the Jew do aliens exist you know is that is that a possibility in the Jewish view there's there's a possibility um and and it wouldn't impact our life in the way that some people think that it would so some people think oh my gosh if there's intelligent life out there that's the end of religion because because oh my it's the the world the worldview that we had until now
is is completely is completely changed the one of the one of the interesting things that's discussed regarding Humanity in the Jewish context is and it's this is openly in the Hebrew Bible that everything conceptually is centered around the human being the human being is seen as the sort of Pinnacle of creation and and we're created in the image of God and that that's something unique and in fact interestingly enough in the in the Hebrew Bible text especially you really get the full the full gist of it in the original Hebrew that the difference between the
way in which everything in the universe is created compared to the human being is is is subtle but but vast the everything else in creation the Bible describes it as being spoken into existence God said let there be light God said let there be plants and animals when it comes to Human Being Human Being say formed from the dust of the earth and God blows the breath of life and so the the Jewish the oral tradition and the mystical text actually say that there's there's a big difference between speaking something into existing speaking something into
existence and deep breath what's the difference when you speak the air expenditure that comes out is very superficial you can talk for hours and you and you know many of us know people that can just talk for hours um and then but deep breath if you're taking deep breath it's you know you'll pass out after five minutes and so the idea is that God has a very a deeper relationship with the human being than does with everything else in creation and so the being created in the IM the image of God our commentaries offer various
uh ideas as to what that actually means but the the central idea as to being created in the image of God means that you that we you and I we have free will that we can make moral decisions and this is something that is unique to a human being the same way that God can make it makes decisions to for example create the universe and completely uh undeterred by by anything else a human being despite any challenges nature or nurture can make a free willed decision to act uh just like God in other words to
to not be influenced by any sort of external factors so being created in the image of God means from from a Jewish Vantage Point means to be a being with free will to be able to make moral decisions that's something that's unique to human beings even the angels in our tradition don't have free will demons don't have free will and Aliens if they were out there they don't have free will so in the same way that I can conceptually believe in the idea of angels and demons and and that sort of thing if aliens were
out there if they were a physical being from another planet and they landed in Time Square tomorrow it was like universally clear that there's life out there you know what I would still do that morning I would still put on my Fillin and I would still pray because okay I mean it'd be cool it'd be interesting to to see and to to reconsider things and kind of get a new look at the universe but it's not going to affect my daily because again one thing I know about the about the the aliens the angels and
the demons is that they don't have free will the human being is created in the image of God now does is this Complicated by the account of the fall of the Demons you know the Christian account is that there's a war in heaven Satan Rebels uh and a third of the Angels go with him and there's a big war and you know it doesn't turn out very well for Satan and then this is uh depicted in later artistic Traditions you think which I actually coincidentally just referenced in the show today uh you know you think
of John Milton Satan who says well I'd rather reign in Hell than serve in heaven the mind is its own place it can make a hell of heaven and Heaven a hell does the rebellion of the Angels imply free will or does it does that not factor into the Jewish conception of demons so it's it's interesting because one thing I think that may be a distinction uh in in Judaism is that uh Satan or or as we call it in Hebrew the Satan uh is means adversary it's a it's a Hebrew word that means the
adversary uh we find it in the Book of Numbers chapter 22 for example where that word is used as meaning just an adversary and there there is in our tradition there is no sort of rebellion in heaven that there was an angel that had free will that said God I hate you and you know I'm G to go make a make a big fight there's no there's no real concept of like a duality that there's the forces of good the forces of evil and they're kind of Duke it out and then the good guys are
going to win in the end but what the the idea of the the Satan or sat is is more sort of the idea that it's an adversary it's something to sort of bring you up in fact one of the ways the Jewish Mystics sort of described it um is imagine you have a king who wants to test the loyalty and the love that his son the prince as for him and so what he what he tells them is you need to live a moral life you need to make sure that you're not involved in all
in various forms of immorality and you need to you need to be on the straight and narrow and then after he has a conversation with his son the prince he goes and hires a harlot to try to seduce the prince in in other words in other words the the harlot's job is to entice the prince as much as possible she her job is to is to really try to get him to to fall right but the Harlot knows that the whole the whole thing is a game in other words the whole reason that she's trying
to entice him is just to bring out the love if she doesn't try to entice him then there's no love and loyalty brought out but is she not is the Harlot not culpable for her e even being used instrumentally to bring out this love and to be this trial is she not culpable I mean I think of Judas right who Judas betrays Christ and this is providential right Christ tells J tells his Apostles one of you is going to betray me Judas comes up he says do you do you betray the son of man with
a kiss and go do do what you're going to do uh and he says you know the son of man is going to be crucified but but woe to that man who does it it would be better for that man had he never been born which is mysterious because you think well hold on this had to happen this was this is the the key of the story and yet this person is still morally culpable even for doing it is that is that mystery worked out in the sort of Jewish conception of Satan or even like
the temptress Harlot or is it or do you get a pass if you're if you're doing a bad action for a good end so the Satan Satan is is an emissary he's he called the an emissary of God in for for the purposes of challenging the human beinging being bringing out that love bringing out that loyalty and that this the only way that that Free Will can be expressed God God wanted to create an environment a world that seemingly is devoid of godliness and that people should be able to look Beyond the Veil that the
world entices us see The Godly core and make this world into a place that openly reveals godliness the only way that you can do that is with Free Will and Temptation and so the the Satan is an adversary but uh the the focus and and also it's it's important to note I think as well that in Jewish tradition the Satan isn't seen so much as the way it is in cartoons with like the good little angel on the right side and the and the devil on the on the other side that the the focus of
the challenge is on what we call the yerar the the evil inclination within all of us if you see something that uh you desire on the outside uh it's not so much the thing that you're Desiring that's causing you it's something on the inside P that right so this is this is something that is the focus is on the internal struggle between doing right and wrong as opposed to some external Force always kind of prodding Us in the wrong direction right we'll have to have you back and I'm very pleased that even though you didn't
give me the precise answer I was hoping for on Aliens you gave me a at least most of the answer I hoping was hoping for which is who cares who cares I don't care about the stupid aliens uh which is pretty good and very very interesting and you can get the book a Jewish Guide to the mysterious and Rabbi Taylor we will certainly have to have you back on the show thank you for coming on was a great pleasure thanks so much Michael [Music] [Music]
