I've never been to a Jewish humanist shul, but I've read that they tend to sing familiar cultural songs that don't really reference God, and sometimes include things like Israeli pop. Some reading you might find relevant:
Humanist Bat Mitzvah...
Hi Alan. :)
I don't, but I don't believe Torah is the word of God either. However, I do still consider the mystical texts of Judaism to be very important sacred texts, alongside Torah. I'm abstaining because I don't think the poll captures the nuance of my position.
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/ideas_belief/afterlife/AE_Messianism_TO.htm
More reading on messianism and the messiah in Judaism up top on the left, underneath the highlighted word "messianism."
Ramchal's 138 Openings of Wisdom:
http://www.barmitzva.org/Kabbalah/138_Openings.htm
Reb Yitzchak Ginsburgh's Site:
http://inner.org/
Bnei Baruch:
http://www.kabbalah.info/
Bunch of general info and primary sources:
http://www.templesanjose.org/JudaismInfo/tradition/kabbalahindex.htm...
I think one of the most balanced sources on Judaism is
http://myjewishlearning.com
as it includes articles from the different denominational perspectives within Judaism, and has a ton of pages.
Dauer
Deut,
All I said is that your above statement is misleading, which it is. By leaving out principles of significant importance to Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism, you give a misleading view of what Reform and Reconstructionist Jews actually believe. What you've just said is also...
Deut,
what you say is a little misleading. Reconstructionists, for example, may agree that there are 613 mitzvot, but they would not says, "God gave these to us." They would say that they are a part of the unique contribution of the Jewish civilization, and they would translate mitzvot as...
I tend to think of Judaism as a tribal religion. I don't think it's healthy to refer to ourselves as a race because of the implications of that term, nor reasonable to say ethnicity because of its common application. Tribal religion, however, seems to fit just fine. The term makes reference to...
Not a new religion, no. My problem is with the political structure of the denominationsl system. I think most people are much more interested in how a shul conducts its services and what kinds of divrei Torah they're going to hear than anything else. The theological boundaries which separate us...
I'd never heard of the Abramelin book. I looked it up and this is what I found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abramelin
It looks more hermetic than Jewish. Agrippa also looks to be hermetic, and not Jewish. From a bio on him "Agrippa's thought unites the streams of classical Neoplatonic and...
However, the Talmud sends a mixed message about astrology. Onein as I have understood it has specifically to do with judging one time favorably, or one time unfavorably. And that type of astrology is forbidden. Learning about oneself through astrology is not. There are also ways to get around...
I wouldn't say that Jewish Renewal is primarily focused on trying to unify the different denominations. It's a little bit more like Jewish R&D. These are the principles of Aleph: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal:
http://www.aleph.org/principles.html
And this is one of the better attempts at a...