Tradition of Privacy"But," I smiled, "in striving to talk about these experiences, what phrases are often used? What do people coming from this experience say?" "Well, you see, again, your question is not quite a non-Jewish question. You’re asking a perfectly legitimate Jewish question except not many Jews ask it," he laughed. "Judaism has a mystical tradition but it’s a minority tradition and suspect, to some degree, historically. So, most people haven’t talked about these experiences. To this day, most people don’t. All of the people who were with me at that study program last week had probably never shared their peak and mountaintop experiences before because this is simply not the kind of thing one goes around talking about in Jewish tradition. It’s not that it’s forbidden to do so, it’s just not our way. "For the most part, the experience is left as an eternal, individual kind of thing. It is the behavior which becomes articulated. "So, when you ask me what most Jews say about these experiences, most Jews don’t say anything!" The Rabbi shrugged. |
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