{"collection":"Judaism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/wants.htm","path":"jud/wants.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/jud/wants.htm","text":"A prayer composed by Mordecai Kaplan in 1926 for the dedication of the new headquarters of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ), the following were included in the Sabbath prayerbook as \"The Criteria of Jewish Loyalty.\"\nTHE THIRTEEN WANTS\nWe want Judaism to help us overcome temptation, doubt and discouragement.\nWe want Judaism to imbue us with a sense of responsibility for the righteous use of the blessings wherewith God endows us.\nWe want the Jew so to be trusted that his yea will be taken as yea, and his nay as nay.\nWe want to learn how to utilize our leisure to best advantage, physically, intellectually, and spiritually.\nWe want the Jewish home to live up to its traditional standards of virtue and piety.\nWe want the Jewish upbringing of our children to further their moral and spiritual growth, and to enable them to accept with joy their heritage as Jews.\nWe want the synagogue to enable us to worship God in sincerity and in truth.\nWe want our religious traditions to be interpreted in terms of understandable experience and to be made relevant to our present-day needs.\nWe want to participate in the upbuilding of Eretz Yisrael as a means to the renaissance of the Jewish spirit.\nWe want Judaism to find rich, manifold and ever new expression in philosophy, letters and the arts.\nWe want all forms of Jewish organization to make for spiritual purpose and ethical endeavor.\nWe want the unity of Israel throughout the world to be fostered through mutual help in time of need, and through cooperation in the furtherance of Judaism at all time.\nWe want Judaism to function as a potent influence for justice, freedom and peace in the life of men and nations.","title":"The Thirteen Wants","type":"page"}