Chief Rabbi Levi Ben Levy 1935-1999
Praise
Theology
Who Shuvah (return) is largely a process by
which people who have been called by God, return, and give all their praise, thanks, devotion, and obediance
to the Creator alone. Our early leaders understand that many of our people who were coming out of darkness
had to purge themselves of idolatry, man-worship disguised as a “Trinity” and come into an
understanding of the indivisiable oneness of God. “Hear oh Israel,
the Lord our God, is One.” This process did not require that you abandon the
fervor, passion, power, and
spiritual ecstasy that is possible through our cultural praise tradition.
How we praise Hashem comes out of , our understanding of our
Biblical tradition and our African heritage
that we brought with us to our exile in Christianity. In other words,
Christian missionaries did not
teach their slaves to pray are we do. Slave maintained their praise tradition
and misapplied it to Christianity.
Now we are bringing it back to the worship of the true and living God.