Dear
Readers,
These columns began on my area of America Online, called: Judaism
Today: Where Do I Fit? People anonymously
sent me E-Mail, and I began to choose one for a public response
in my Jewish E-Mail of the Week column. The column has become
quite popular and is now syndicated internationally in many
Jewish papers and websites. I hope you find they help you
as you think about the Ethics, Spirituality and Peoplehood
components of the Jewish way of Life. I welcome your
comments... see the end of the column.
Gil
PS
Teachers and others, feel free to copy my columns and forward
them or use them as you see fit. Please see the friendly
copyright notice at the end. |
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I'M
THINKING OF BECOMING A CHRISTIAN...
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Dear Gil:
I have a dilemma
that I never thought I would be dealing with. I had a Bat Mitzvah
when I was 13. Other than the prep for this ceremony and the token
visits during the High Holidays, being Jewish just meant that we
never expected reindeer on our roof in December.
Now that I am 33,
and living 2000 miles away from my family, I am coming to realize
that I am missing a great piece of my life, my spirituality. Several
of my close friends, whose attitudes and personalities I admire, are
Christians. We have had several discussions, and I feel that this is
my time to resume my communication with God. My problem is that I
feel that the idea of accepting Jesus Christ in my life is a very
appealing notion. I have been going to church the last six weeks,
and feel as if I am following the right path.
The concern that I
have is that there is a part of me that feels like I am turning my
back on my heritage. My family knows nothing of all this yet. Do you
have any suggestions how to determine which path (meaning Jewish vs.
Christian) is right for me? Any comments or thoughts would be very
welcome.
C
Dear C:
I care deeply about
your letter because our tradition teaches that "all Jews are
responsible one for the other." We are so few in number, it
pains me to think of losing any member of our people. This is not to
say that I don't care about non-Jews -- I do, but I view my fellow
Jews differently, as part of my extended family with a common past
and heritage -- as you noted.
I can understand your
searching especially since growing up it does not sound like Judaism
gave you anything particularly spiritual or compelling. Your
background unfortunately is not unique. I regularly hear from Jews
who tell me that their Bar/Bat Mitzvah training gave them next to
nothing spiritually or in any other way Jewishly....and that is all
the Jewish education they received.
Perhaps your E-mail
will be a wake-up call to parents, teachers, religious school
directors and rabbis. You, like most students learned
"how" to "have" a Bar/Bat Mitzvah (that is how
to chant and daven.) Too few have learned "why" they
should want to "become" a Bar/Bat Mitzvah -- that is to
why they should want to become a counted member of the Jewish
people. In other words, in your Bat Mitzvah "prep," you
(like many others) were not taught the many compelling reasons why
you would want to be Jewish...including Jewish teaching about
spirituality.
I think you would be
making a mistake to judge Judaism based on this sparse background
and education. If you look just a little deeper, I believe you will
find Judaism offers much that is spiritual, beautiful, fulfilling
and relevant to a modern person living in a modern world. This is
not to say that Christianity does not have what to offer, but before
you jump to any conclusions about conversion, I have several
suggestions that I hope you will take seriously, in fairness to
yourself and Judaism.
First, go to any book
store and look in the Judaica section. In particular look for the
book To Life by Harold Kushner and for anything published by Jewish
Lights Publishing -- their specialty is Jewish spirituality. And, at
the risk of sounding self serving, I think you would also like my
book: How to Get More Out of Being Jewish Even if:
A. You're not sure you believe in God,
B. You think going to synagogue is a waste of time,
C. You think keeping kosher is stupid,
D. You hated Hebrew School or,
E. All of the above! AOL readers, you can get a free download of the
first 2 chapters at Keywords: Judaism Today.
Also, go to the
Internet and on your search engine, enter Jewish. You will be blown
away at the number of great sites covering every possible aspect of
Judaism including spirituality. Finally, please speak with a rabbi
or 2 or 3. Share your thoughts and questions.
The responses you will
read and hear from these sources should help you in your soul
searching....a soul searching I admire. Please stay in touch.
Gil
A FRIENDLY COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© Copyright Gil Mann
These columns can be found at www.beingjewish.org. Not
only do I give you permissions to copy these Jewish Email
columns...I HOPE YOU WILL and that you share them with others!
All I ask is that you never charge anyone for them and that you
also include this little copyright notice. Thank You!
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