A Jew Today - A
Personal Story
By: Max Sandler
I believe that my idea of
Judaism is very unique and one of a kind. I live in Minnesota where there is
not a massive Jewish population in the state, but yet they are noticeable. I
like to think of myself as an orthodox conservative, if that makes any sense. I
think this because I follow the ways of conservatism and its core values and
beliefs, but on the other hand I think of myself as much more religious and
spiritually close to God and Judaism than the average conservative Jew is
today. I feel that certain things make me more Jewish. A key aspect for me is
that I go to synagogue every week. I volunteer at my local synagogue for four
hours a week every Shabbos(SMP, Saturday Morning Program), and tutor 5th
graders preparing for their bar-mitzvahs, and also growing to become better
Jews. I was once in their shoes, as a sprouting young child, and all I remember
was how cool/awe-inspiring the tutors were; and I knew from the first day that
I wanted to move up in the ranks at SMP and tutor kids one day also. Another
reason why I tutor kids is for both the fun and Jewish experience that I get, I
love working with kids, and its even better when you are teaching them
something important, like Torah trope. Another main reason why I think as
myself as a stronger Jew is because I keep Kosher. My dad lived his whole
entire life kosher and my mom “converted” to kosher-ism when they got married.
It is my way of life, and I couldn’t imagine living any other way. I don’t know
what it is but it makes me feel special, like I am one a kind. It may sound
strange to people that I have never eaten a cheese-burger or had bacon, but its
me, and if my parents gave the decision to me if I wanted to stay kosher in my
life, I would most definitely stay the way I am; and I would also say thank you
to my parents for raising me kosher. The value that I most recognize myself
with in Judaism is celebrating the Jewish holidays, but most importantly having
Shabbat every weekend with my family. The holidays are my favorite part of the
year, by far. I love coming together with my outer family members and enjoying
each others company while celebrating the Jewish holiday. It may sound weird
but my favorite holiday is Passover, and the reason behind this is that it s
different and makes you think about both your past, present, and future life.
That’s what I like about Judaism; it opens your eyes to all of your
surroundings. On Passover we learn about the Jews in Egypt, and we symbolize
this struggle by eating the unleavened bread, matzo, and restricting ourselves
from food that rises. For me its very interesting to step into the shoes of
these people living in Egypt awaiting to take back the land of Israel, and I
love how we can commemorate their true bravery by stepping into their shoes and
“struggling” with them. Passover is my favorite holiday, by a long shot. My
second favorite holiday is Shabbat. I believe that everyone should have the
same connection that I have with my family, it is truly awesome to have such a
perfect family who is so close to one and other. I feel that Shabbat is what
binds all of us together. The week may have been the worst 5 days of our lives,
but we always end the long period of time together, as one family. We sing the
prayers on Shabbat, light the candles, and eat fresh homemade Challah made by
the best cook in the world, my mom. The spiritual connection is fantastic. It
is my day of rest and I resist to day any homework and restrict myself from
going out with friends and doing rigorous activity. Once school ends on Friday
I all of a sudden get butterflies in my stomach and happiness sweeps over my
body. I am not only happy that the week is over, but I am happy that Shabbat is
coming. Shabbat may be 52 times in a year, but I treat like it only comes once
in a millennium. One word to describe my attitude towards Shabbat is Love,
simple as that.
Now lets
talk about the future for myself, regarding Judaism. I have many hopes and
goals for myself when I get older and what kind of Jew I want to become. My
main aspiration is to be more connected to Judaism in some kind of way; it does
not have to be anything specific such as studying Torah once a week or going to
services every morning, but something that will make a difference on others and
myself. I already feel a strong connection to Judaism, and when people ask me
what I see my self as I say the following “I am a Jew”. Judaism is a defining
factor in how I live my life. What I mean by this is that I base almost all of
my actions from the Jewish perspective. I think to myself, would this be
against or for Judaism, meaning that will it benefit me as a Jew being involved
in certain situations. Jewish faith contains all of my thoughts on life. I want
to be able to spread this same love for Judaism that I have. I want everybody
to feel that Judaism is a part of his or her lives, and that it is very evident
in how they are living. When I grow up I hope that I will keep my same values
that I have today, and build on this lifestyle. I want to look back on my life
when I’m older and say to myself that I made the right decisions, religiously,
and not have any regrets on how I lived my Jewish life.
I would say
that Israel plays a huge part in defining who I am as a person and how I live
my life as a Jew. I am a very strong believer in the idea of a Jewish state. I
believe that everyone that is Jewish should at least come to Israel once in
their life, and maybe even make aliyah. It is a magnificent place to be and to
explore. It is packed full of Jewish heritage and history. This is so true, for
example, the normal relative age for artifacts found in Israel can be around
3000 years, and they act like it is not a big deal. The cities and the stories
of Israel help people discover both the struggle and the happiness the Jews
have had over time. I would call myself a Zionist, because I push the idea of
the Jewish state to just about everyone that I see. I want Israel to become
more powerful in terms of its Judaism aspect. I believe that the country should
strive to become more Jewish like it was in the old times, I want Israel to
become more of a Jewish state then a state with Jews. Doing the interviews
about Judaism with people on the streets today in Tel-Aviv really opened my
eyes up to people’s values and beliefs towards Israel. The main thing that
really surprised me is that almost all of the people would define themselves as
being more Israeli than they are Jewish. I would think it would be the
opposite, but their reasoning behind this value made a lot of sense. To sum up
all of the peoples responses, they said that the reasone why they think that
they are more Israeli is because Tel-Aviv is more like a “New-York Israel”, and
has transformed into a Jewish city; and in this transformation Judaism has sort
of been lost in the process. They all said that the Jewish ideals have changed
over the time, and the influx of technology and modern society is affecting the
Jewish population in both a negative and positive way. I was cool to see a different
perspective and Judaism. These encounters also helped make my loving for
Judaism much stronger, the conversations sounded like they had lost their faith
and have sort of assimilated into society. And assimilation is the one thing
that I never want to do ever in my life, even in things other then Judaism. My goal
in life is to never conform to what society wants me to become, but to do the
opposite, conform society to what I want it to become.
BYE EVERYONE, TREAT OTHERS LIKE YOU WANT TO BE TREATED.
thanks pada
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