Inquiry: Honorable Pâqid Yirmәyâhu, ha-Tzadiq,
shalom and greetings from Italy. I'm not affiliated with an established religion or faith but have been sympatetic with judaism by reading books on the "historical J-e-s-u-s-". As I have said I have an interest in Judaism: even the casual and uneducated reader of the Bible can see how idolatrous is...name it...catholicism (the prevalent religion in Italy as you know)...and how Judaism is faithful to its bublical roots. One thing I'm unable to reconcile: how it is possible that Judaism tolerate freemansory among its memebers? Don't get me wrong: I'm not speacking about or subscrubing to silly "cospiracy theories" or silly theories of antisemite people. My question is: can an observant Jew be a mason? I know there is not a lot of jews in freemasonry but, for example, a chief rabbi in Britain was a mason. What is you opinion on that? I see a lot of idolatrous symbols in freemasonry. I'm wrong about my impression? I would like to know your opinion on that and what is the position of rabbinical authorities in Israel about freemasonry. Is freemasonry avodah zarah? Thank you very much for your answer...and keep in touch. Meanwhile I will read your internet website.
Perhaps the best answer is my personal answer. My uncle was a Mason. My mother was in Eastern Star. I've known friends who are Masons. I've been given the opportunity to join the Masons on a number of different occasions. I've always declined because I refuse to commit myself to anything that wouldn't be defined to me until after I committed to the unknown. That simply doesn't compute.
When I was in university, I joined a secret fraternity. But the only thing secret and kept from me until after I joined was the method of recognizing brothers and a secret handshake. Nothing else about the fraternity was secret. It is a business fraternity (ΔΣΠ) dedicated to maintaining a high standard of business ethics. I find no conflict in such harmless secrets and Tor•âhꞋ . After all, I'm a vet of the USAF Intelligence Agency and I still carry Top Secret Crypto Comint-indoctrinated secrets around in my head (though they're probably long obsolete by now). So, I don't find secrets incompatible with Tor•âhꞋ simply because they're secret. The touchstone is whether a secret may conflict with Tor•âhꞋ . Let's face it, there's a lot of married people carrying around secrets of adultery in their head that definitely conflict with Tor•âhꞋ . The problem is in the nature of the secret, not the innate nature of secrecy itself nor whether the secrecy is associated with an organization or branch of government.
IMO, your question, shared by a multitude of people, is whether more central and significant secrets of an organization may conflict with Tor•âhꞋ and the answer is: of course!
What one embraces when joining the Masons is unknown, zealously kept from everyone outside their fraternity. Your question reduces not to whether anything in the Masons conflicts with Tor•âhꞋ because no one outside of Masonry can answer that. Rather, the question is whether a servant of Tor•âhꞋ may commit to any unknown when its compatibility with Tor•âhꞋ is unknown and cannot be determined. The unequivocal answer is: No!
Whether a Mason explained the secret things that would be required to the Chief Rabbi of Britain before he committed to join I don't know. Enough has been explained to me when I expressed my reluctance that I doubt there is a conflict. But that falls short of certainty and I don't commit to anything that may even remotely conflict with Tor•âhꞋ . What no Mason was able to guarantee me is that there would be nothing required of me that I determined was incompatible with Tor•âhꞋ . Until a Mason can assure me of this, I will continue to refuse to become a Mason. If they were able to make this guarantee, I think I probably would become a Mason. As best I understand Freemasonry, they, like my fraternity does in the area of business practice, provide an environment in which their members find encouragement and camaraderie, reinforcing one another, in striving for moral and ethical excellence. That is certainly compatible with Tor•âhꞋ .
However, if participation in the doctrines or liturgy of any other book(s) is required of all members—e.g., inter alia, the Διαθηκη Καινη (NT) or Quran—then that would define Freemasonry as a•vod•âhꞋ zâr•âhꞋ violating Tor•âhꞋ . If participation in the doctrines or liturgy of any other book(s) is optional and any member can reject and decline such participation then it is no different that the world outside of Freemasonry and not a problem.
So, to summarize, the answer depends on what Freemasonry requires of members and this, putatively, is not disclosed to potential members. Therefore, committing to the unknown of Freemasonry, since it may conflict with Tor•âhꞋ , constructively demonstrates the willingness to compromise (violate) the uncompromising commitment to serve é--ä required by His Tor•âhꞋ .
Tor•âhꞋ prohibits even commitment that may potentially rival é--ä and His Tor•âhꞋ .
Hope that helps.
