All posts tagged: HUMANISM

FIRST PERSON | Journeys to Humanism: My Rabbi Led Me to Jewish Humanism

FIRST PERSON | Journeys to Humanism: My Rabbi Led Me to Jewish Humanism

Published by Sam Flores

Journeys to Humanism, theHumanist.com’s regular series, features real stories from humanists in our community. From heartwarming narratives of growth, to more difficult journeys, our readers open up about their experiences coming to humanism. Eric GordonLos Angeles, CA My path to humanism was smooth. It was my rabbi, Robert E. Goldburg of Congregation Mishkan Israel in New Haven, Connecticut, who inspired me with his interpretation of prophetic Judaism in the classical Reform tradition. In our temple we wore no yarmulkes or prayer shawls, and even after modern Israeli Hebrew started dominating American Jewish life our temple held fast to the old Ashkenazi pronunciation. The week he received tenure, he sermonized powerfully about the impoverished vision of the local Jewish Federation. He regularly invited controversy, dialogue, confrontation with ideas and shibboleths. Bob kept an apartment in New York, a short train ride away, for his off days, and often he’d return with a sermon based on the latest Broadway play or musical. The stage was as much a religion for him as the Torah. When he was …

HUMANISM 101 | Ethical Non-Monogamy and Humanism: The Art of Compersion

HUMANISM 101 | Ethical Non-Monogamy and Humanism: The Art of Compersion

Published by Sam Flores

While on my journey to non-belief, skepticism and secular humanism, I’ve had many epiphanies. The one that may have struck me as the most poignant, at least recently, was when I heard the word “compersion.” It was the kind of ah ha moment of when a word or expression was finally applied to a feeling and emotion I hadn’t yet been able to articulate. Compersion simply means to find joy in someone else’s joy. I learned even more recently that the word itself is specifically related to consensual non-monogamous relationships – which was also a sort of epiphany for me in that I didn’t quite get why it mostly applies to sexual or romantic relationships, as I figured being happy for other people shouldn’t require such specifications. As a humanist, finding joy in other’s joy seems to me to be a foundational principle of humanism itself. But I digress, on to my epiphany… My husband and I were married in March of 2000, when I was barely old enough to drink at 21 and when …