Indeed, it is believed that only through such mystical communion can one truly know God. Prayer, meditation, and rituals such as fasting are typical activities designed to bring the individual into contact with the divine. Mysticism is unsuitable for Humanistic Judaism, which relies upon reason and experience as the guide to truth. The power of new life, the brilliance of a sunrise, the majesty of a waterfall, the grandeur of nature, the vastness of the universe, the warmth of friends, the thrill of achievement, the excitement of new ideas, all connect us to a natural spirituality, a spirituality that is rooted in the natural world and the power of human beings. Celebrations dramatize our commitments to people and ideas.
Community festivals reinforce group solidarity.
Because ancient peoples deemed supernatural power essential to human welfare, traditional festivals were accompanied by prayer, worship, and divination. A festival with worship rituals was a holyday, or holiday. Priestly and rabbinic Judaism promoted rituals, both for holydays and for daily living, that reinforced Jewish solidarity and sought to guarantee divine support for group survival. Humanistic Jews recognize the value of celebration as a vehicle for group togetherness, but they find no value in the fixed, repetitive behavior characteristic of historic worship and prayer. Humanistic celebrations dramatize the accomplishments of people and the importance of the community and the natural phenomena that exist to support it.