Beth El Jacob - What We Believe

What We Believe:

First, and at the center of our life is God.  “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One” (Deut. 6:4).  These words express our foundation that there exists a one, indivisible God by whose will the universe and all that is in it was created. It’s just that simple.

Our faith starts with, “And God created the heavens and the earth.” And our faith continues to acknowledge that, “I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt”.  That He is a living God, who continues to play a role in the universe He created.  He is a sovereign God, who is concerned about the behavior of the people He created, and to that end has found ways to make His will known to mankind.  That method is the Torah the first five books of Moses-the Written Torah (Torah SheBiktav). In a sense this is the “constitution” of the Jewish People and it was created not by man but by God.  By “Torah” we also recognize the Oral Torah (Torah She-B’al Peh) “which Moses received at Sinai, and transmitted to Joshua, and Joshua to the Elders, and the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly…”(Ethics of the Fathers 1:1).  In other words, it is the whole package.

We believe that the bond between the Jewish people and the land which came to be known as Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel, began at the time of Abraham:

“I will maintain My covenant between Me and you and your offspring to come as an everlasting covenant through-out the ages, to be God to you and to your offspring to come.  I give the land you sojourn in to you and your offspring to come, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession.”  (Genesis 17:7-8)

This began 3,800 years ago and our bond to the Land of Israel remains today.  At Beth El Jacob we are strongly committed to the safety, security and uncompromising reality that Israel is a Jewish State given by God and upheld by man.

We believe that while anyone can become a Jew through proper and essential education and formal conversion that our “Jewishness” is transmitted from our maternal relationship rather than paternal.  Call it “old fashioned” but the sages had good reason to suggest that one could always be assured of who might be the child’s mother while the parenthood of the father can often be questioned. 

We also recognize that both Jew and Gentile are human and none of us are infallible.  All of us are entitled to respect, dignity and the right to worship in a way that brings us closer to God while doing no harm to others.

For more about “what” we believe we suggest you contact our rabbi directly or pick up a great book, we might suggest To Be a Jew – A Guide to Jewish Observance in Contemporary Life a wonderful overview of Orthodox Judaism by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin, of blessed memory,  available online or from major bookstores.