Title: Jewish Messiah Hi Ariel, Gambista and hidden forum readers Posted at open source judaism's online forum Understanding our motivations for our divine answers. Jewish Messiah ... from my experience. With respect for philosophical, academic and historical approaches I would like to look at the emotional and existential motivations. I'll refer to my personal experience for a motive for a messiah god. I was extremely vulnerable to a Messiah and a personal God persuasion. At the age of 17 to 18 before traveling to Jerusalem for spirituality, I explored Hare Krishna vegetarian food, then its theology and devotion. I discovered I felt strongly against idol worship when confronted by it. Nevertheless, I explored my world, as a Jewish Westerner tasting the East. In discussions with Krishna devotees I often compared Biblical legend. Theological analogy/metaphor often sought comparison in modern physics. I discovered a curious feeling in calling into me a relation with God. Krishna devotees seemed to enjoy relating - did I want, what they got? My explorations lead me to a conclusion, something to guide me further: Shared faith in a devotional mystical but congruent reality is powerful. I did want religious community in my life, but I needed to keep looking. My parents suggested Judaism, which included Hasidism and the Kabalah. Add Modern Zionism, modern socialism and an imperialist nationalism. I was seeking my own devotional and mystical reality and to share it. At this point I will refer you to my earlier forum entry in the topic of Kabbalah & Mysticism at http://opensourcejudaism.com/forum/ In short, I found myself asking if I am a Messiah? are you? are we? who? I asked myself, to what degree can I feel Divine providence in my life? I experienced a strong desire to answer those questions affirmatively. I sought answers, through experiment, in quick fixes and more elaborate. I aligned with historical, mystical personalities, Jewish messiah spirits. I sat with impersonal non-directional non-possessive spirituality culture. The point of this post is to ground this discussion in honest experience. An elaborate and integrative common language might be grounded in people. I'll end this post by asking this question to participants in this forum: Have you, do you explore motivations and experiments in seeking Divinty? Posted at open source judaism's online forum Yehoshanah 2004 11 05