Messiah
How many seekers have “reached enlightenment”? How can the unenlightened know or discern whether a person is truly enlightened?
It is unclear how many of our great messianic prophets attained their state of prophecy. Jesus was born the messiah, the son of God. There was no special training he went through – though there has been much speculation on the matter. How did Mohammed, the Holy Prophet, become enlightened? He was a goat herder, an epileptic who had visions. No one taught him, nor had had he been an ardent practitioner of any training or tradition, though some may lay claim to that.
Buddha was born a prince, and stepping out of luxury into poverty, after encountering the real struggles of life, he went on a long journey of exploration – essentially rejecting all the mundane aspects of life. He may have studied and practised many paths to enlightenment, but it was essentially the impact of life that sent him on his quest.
Moses was not brought up Jewish – in fact, he pre-dates the Torah, upon which Judaism is based. His life was quite traumatic, but there was no revolutionary spirit, or visionary meditating and praying in the desert. In fact, he was herding sheep when God spoke to him. There are other examples, but the smaller ones are mostly offshoots variations on the major religion movements. (Zoroastrianism, Essene, Mormon, etc).
My point here being that these Messianic spirits arose independently of the tradition which most of them would have been born into and practised. They often challenged the established faith, and introduced different forms of worship – that the established oligarchy often objected to. In fact, their inspiration, their “revelation” often comes from somewhere disconnected from the religion – some would say, simply, and solely, from G-d.
As is often the case, true change comes mostly from the periphery—some might say from an "other" that exists beyond the perimeter. How can someone steeped in the established traditions, who believes fully in them and assiduously practises them, actually find an expression that could be different from what he knows? In other words, true inspiration that comes from G-d, will always come from something that is beyond the known realm. If it is time, thus G-d's will, it will affect all of humanity in some fashion. Similarly, could this also then only come from God as well?
Expand our religious repertoire
At present there is need to expand our religious repertoire, and enter into dialogue with the current religious paradigm—called science. Although it may have many faults, it also has many good points, and religion should focus on that rather than be in constant conflict with empirical truths—which, essentially, are expression of G-d creation. These "natural" laws are, after all, in fact, G-d's laws—they were just not the one's that were written in the 'text books'. What would be the purpose of that, if they had already been engraved on the universe which only exists because of these "laws"—which I personally would rather refer to as the Will of God made manifest.
Science has affected the way we live in many meaningful ways in the last centuries, perhaps more so than religion has—and that needs to be attended to by extending our religious discourse to include those G-dly elements that science has found a way to express. For it is only by merging the two will we be able to find the balance and harmony that we seek.
For instance, there are many Jews who see that Kosher, which was interpreted according to different circumstances, is not taking into account the way in which living beings are being treated to provide us with our Kosher meat. It emerged in a time when there was no factory farming, with awful conditions that require pharmaceuticals, supplements, pesticides, and hormones for the animal or plant to survive. Now that there exist such things, spawns of our science, that affect our food, in fact, and all the living systems that make up our environment. So I ask, can the cow that has been fed all these supplements be healthy - even though all its organs look intact?
We need to face the reality of what is happening in the world today, and seek ways to navigate that—if not for our sakes, then for our children's sakes. We are not talking about fads and fashions, trends or movements. We are talking about the changes in the very fabric of our society and its methods of production and extraction, manufacture and materials.
Instead of trying to hold the tide back, why are the religions, guided by G-d, not helping us apply ourselves to finding truly “kosher” solutions to our lives in the midst of these changes—which are just beginning.
Step boldly and bravely into the gap. That is the reason that there is an over-abundance of rabbis. So that they may find solutions from our texts and our explorations to these issues. We need priestly/spiritual think tanks, synods to decide how to navigate the coming assault on everything that it means to be human and a man of Godly faith – against those who believe that human made could be superior to divinely fashioned.