I traveled in Israel (yrs ago now), & my Mom's sister's kids--adults, were there, living &/or studying... & they are very Religious/ literalists--& I don't agree with this, from my perspective. I use to think that it would be convenient to imagine them as a source toward the Jewish ideal in mind for me. But, it is barely the case, because the warm & fuzzy quickly erodes--they would define things I am too busy in my mind understanding in a whole different light. The idea of the sabbath (shabbat) is something I adjust to, like a plateaued week into a peak weekend, trading off the gravity of what fire I stoke, light dark light dark, corridor/ plateau. They "imagine" the sabbath as a culmination of meritable lives to be Observed & placed into a nice neat box, because the mutually arising communities in which we live is the least of their worries to be attenuated: they are only concerned with the vital Jewish norm... Whereas I plug into the transcendental bridge unto Islam--quite a bit, Buddhism--Hinduism, & Christian teachings willingly & strangely because that motive gets jaded just looking around at the white bread world projecting an unsavory version therein. In the end, and I know I am preaching to the chorus, there is no authority to appeal to toward "self-actualization."=Gandhi's definition for religion.