Wednesday, September 14, 2005

My first post on spirituality

When someone uses the word "spirituality" you never know what they are talking about.

This is because spirituality is a horrible word, a word that means different things to different people, and a word that subsumes many different areas of thought, areas of thought like the existence of spiritual worlds, the rules of the afterlife, and the purpose of mitzvoth.

I'd love to see the word dropped from intelligent speech, in the way that words like "nice" and "special" are largely avoided by people who care about words. I'd love for people to say what they mean, instead of hiding behind a high-sounding weasel word like "spirituality."

Here's an illustrative example.

GH likes to say that "Spirituality is an important part of Judaism." But what the hell does he mean? That demons are an important part of Judaism? That the afterlife is an important part of Judaism? That kugel is an important part of Judaism? I have no idea. And I supect that he doesn't either.

If GH would like to (finally) explain to us what he means when he says that "Spirituality is an important part of Judaism," I'll be glad to tell you if he's right or wrong.