A Sacred Journey

We do not know why the universe came into being exactly when it did, just as we do not know why one particular egg and sperm combine to become a particular full-size human being. That is not to say that we do not have an abundance of data about the formation of the universe or the conception of a baby–only that when we add up all the facts, we still don'€™t know toward what end these births occurred.

Even so, the Jewish people has cherished a tradition that human life has a purpose, which begins outside the natural realm. Whether this belief can be scientifically verified is not the issue here. Rather, we are examining how this basic belief helped the Jewish people to make sense out of their lives as well as to seek to improve the quality of human existence. It is the foundation upon which the Jewish people has narrated its own history.

The Jewish narrative begins with Torah. Torah is not simply the five books of Moses that comprise the first part of the Jewish Bible. Torah is the blueprint for the Jewish understanding of the world. The word Torah expands in Jewish tradition to encompass all that is important in life. It means "the teaching"€ par excellence, or the source of "€œlight,"€ or "enlightenment."€ The meaning of Torah goes beyond specific words or interpretations. The Zohar, a central text of the mystical kabbalists that was written by Moses de Leon at the end of the thirteenth century, tries to capture its ineffable meaning through metaphor:

In descending to this world, if the Torah did not put on the garments of this world the world could not endure. So this story of Torah (the Five Books of Moses) is but the garment of Torah.

The body is clothed in garments, the stories of this world. Fools of the world look only at the garment, the story of Torah; they know nothing more. Those who know more do not look at the garment but rather at the body under that garment.... In the time to come they are destined to look at the soul of the soul of Torah.

As wine must sit in a jar, so Torah must sit in a garment. Look only at what is under the garment! So all those words and all those stories–€“they are [mere] garments! Happy are the righteous who look at Torah properly.