Often you will hear me refer to "the Rabbis." This phrase is used to designate the rabbis who lived between 200 BCE and 500 CE. They are the generation who wrote the Mishnah and the Gemarah.

Woven into their legal debates are the midrashim that form the basis for Jewish theology. Their beliefs to this day form the basis of our contemporary theology. I talked about them in a d'var Torah I delivered a couple of weeks ago, and several people suggested that I repeat in a bulletin article what those beliefs are. They may or may not define your own personal belief, but they do suggest the foundation on which you might build your own theology:

- the belief that God is one, unique and indivisible, and created the universe.
- the belief in that human beings possess free will, and thus are responsible for their behavior.
- the belief that God is a spiritual, not a physical, being and is both eternal and infinite.
- the belief that human beings cannot know God directly but can know about God by what we learn about God through His handiwork.creation.
- the belief that human beings are created in the divine image and share with God the ability to create.
- the belief that we are God's treasured people who live in covenant with Him and through that covenant are obligated to live by the standards set for us.
- the belief that all humanity has the opportunity to live in covenant with God, and each people who subsequently makes such a covenant is obligated to live by their covenant.
- the belief that whether one lives in direct covenant with God or not, there are certain basic moral obligations that every human being has to live.
- the belief that any human being who lives a good, moral life is eligible for salvation because God doesn't measure your life by your faith but by your deeds.