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A Personal Observation

I grew up in the 1950s and early 1960s attending a Conservative congregation. As any child brought up in a system, I believed that this was the norm in the same way that I thought my household was the norm and my high school was the norm and my rock-and-roll band was the norm and my mom and dad were the norm. As I matured, I was often shocked to discover that not only are things different out in the real world but also there is oftentimes no norm.

In my synagogue, it was typical for men and boys to wear a kippah (skullcap) when in the synagogue, to wear a tallit (prayer shawl) when attending religious services, and to recite certain prayers in Hebrew and others in English. At the time, few adult women in the congregation participated in leading religious services. However, more than ever before, girls were attending Hebrew school and participating in the bat mitzvah ritual, just as the boys celebrated their bar mitzvah. (The girls were the ones from whom I copied my Hebrew school homework.)

The first time I attended a Reform Shabbat service, I was quite surprised. For the most part, the congregants did not wear a kippah or tallit; much more of the service was in English than in Hebrew; and when the rabbi read the Torah portion, he translated it into English, line by line, as he went along—I liked this method since it meant I did not have to read the English to know what he was talking about.

Through the years, I have belonged to more than one Reform congregation, and I have generally found the services stimulating and informative. I have also attended Conservative services reminiscent of the synagogue of my youth as well as Orthodox services, which reflect traditional Judaism as it has been practiced for centuries. On occasion I’ve attended what I would refer to as “alternative” congregations and taken part in services that were outside my own definition of mainstream. I did note, however, the joy and delight with which the congregants participated, and I respected their enthusiasm.

My search for a religious or spiritual life has been a dynamic process. The spirituality I desired in my youth changed as I matured. Marriage and children affected the decisions about the type of religious observance my family and I sought and the degree to which we sought it. As I entered middle age, I found myself looking once more for a meaningful spiritual life, one that maybe was quite different from what I previously wanted or needed.

With its vast sources of ritual and history, Judaism provides each Jewish person with a wealth of options for how best to shape his or her spirituality. Basic to Judaism is a belief in the one God and the wisdom of the Torah. In the words of the prophet Micah (6:8), “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Finally, the scholar and teacher Hillel was inspired by Leviticus 19:18 (“you shall love your neighbor as yourself”) when he said, “The entire Law [Torah] may be reduced to one statement, ‘What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor,’ the remainder being but commentary on this fundamental principle.” In this statement, both he and Jesus, certainly inspired by the same Scripture, were in total agreement.