Jewish Science is a

Judaic Judaism () is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which the ...

spiritual movement comparable to the New Thought Movement. Many of its members also attend services at conventional

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

s. It is an interpretation of

Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconc ...

that was originally conceived by Rabbi Alfred Geiger Moses in the early 1900s in response to the growing influence of

Christian Science Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices which are associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes in ...

and the New Thought Movement. Rather than the paternal God figure encountered in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

tradition, "Jewish Science views God as an energy or force penetrating the reality of the universe. God is the source of all reality, and not separate from but a real part of our world." His fundamental teachings are found in his 1916 book ''Jewish Science: Divine Healing in Judaism''. The movement was institutionalized in 1922 with Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein's founding of the Society of Jewish Science.

History

Thanks to radio broadcasts on WMCA and the establishment of the ''Jewish Science Interpreter''

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the movement attracted numerous adherents, thereby helping its rise to prominence in the Jewish community. In 1938, Tehilla Lichtenstein became the spiritual leader of the Society of Jewish Science in New York, making her the first Jewish American woman to serve as the spiritual leader of an ongoing Jewish congregation, although she was not ordained. Currently, the Society's "Home Center" and synagogue is located in midtown Manhattan, New York. The Society also maintains a congregation in Los Angeles California, and many study groups around the country which focus on each of the main texts of Jewish Science.

Affirmative prayer

Jewish Science leader Morris Lichtenstein found affirmative prayer to be particularly useful because, he believed, it provided the personal benefits of prayer without requiring the belief in a supernatural God who could suspend the laws of nature. He considered affirmative prayer to be a method to access inner power that could be considered divine, but not supernatural. He taught that the origins of affirmative prayer can be found in the Hebrew Bible's Book of

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

, and that affirmations, or affirmative prayers, are best offered in silence.

Citations

References

Primary sources

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Secondary sources

External links

Society of Jewish Science

{{Jews and Judaism Jewish religious movements Jewish new religious movements New Thought denominations Jewish organizations established in 1922