Adventures in Judaism

The reading assignment this week for the "Introduction to Judaism" class I am taking at our shul in Galveston is on the mystical tradition within Judaism. The book we are reading, Essential Judaism , is not written in a style that makes for quick reading to begin with*, but I am finding myself taking longer than usual this week. And this is not the first time I have stalled out trying to get a basic grasp of Jewish mysticism, commonly referred to as Kabbalah: about half a year ago, I picked up an audiobook on Kabbalah for beginners and found that I couldn't get past the introductory chapters (which, to be fair, took up about 2/3 of the book) to the part where you supposedly find out how Kabbalah is actually practiced or what impact it actually has in anybody's life. I had thought at the time that this was simply a bad introduction to the subject, that there must be some entry point into the Kabbalah that would make me a Jewish mystic myself one day, but this week...

Yesterday, Facebook reminded me that it was exactly one birthday ago that my nearly two-decade-long journey of religious self-discovery completely jumped the tracks. Ran off the road. Stalled out and seemed unlikely to recover its lost altitude. I had spent a dozen and a half years exploring every liberal fringe or offshoot of Christianity I could find. Quaker theology often seemed the best description of the God I was looking for, but Quaker practice only gave me tantalizing glimpses of that divinity. In all its beautiful simplicity, Quakerism was too austere, too DIY, too empty of the day-to-day (and holy day) trappings of religion to fit me and my family. Unitarian Universalism was a delightful playground for my mind at first, willing to let me ask any question I wanted and answer it however I wanted to (as long as my answers didn't make anybody feel excluded or sound too much like the religions other people were running away from), referencing ...

In those times when terrorism and hate break into our world – clearly the case in the death of four innocents in Tel Aviv last week, and even more so in the death of fifty or more in Orlando days later – those of us who are religious are tempted to ask those classic questions: where is God in all of this? and Why does God allow such evil to happen in our world? Better minds than mine have attempted to answer these questions, but the questions remain unanswered. So, here goes a fool rushing in where angels fear to tread… Where is God in all this? I find this one to be the easier of the two questions to answer: to me it is clear that God is in the suffering and in the outpouring of care and love and hope that inevitably follow these events. God's arms are holding each of the victims, easing the way for each of their souls to make their peace with the life just ended and begin their journey to the life to come. God is standing in solidarity, weeping and angry, next to each...

"Dad, I've finally figured out why I like Judaism better than Christianity" "Oh, why's that?" "Christianity teaches that people aren't good, have never been good, and aren't capable of getting any better, so why even bother trying? Judaism teaches that people aren't perfectly good, and nobody ever has been, but that we can  be better people and so it is  worth trying to fix our problems and do good in the world – in fact, we're commanded to do our best to be good people and do good in the world." Now, before I go one word further, I want to stress that my son came up with that last paragraph entirely on his own . You shouldn't applaud me for an excellent job of indoctrination, nor can you upbraid me for instilling a narrow view of Christianity, because these words come from his own experiences, not from anything I've taught the boy.  Yes, I know that not all Christians would agree with the ideas of original sin, total deprav...

Well, it's that time of year again – which comes for me about three times a year, actually – when the frenetic pace and stress hormone support of finals week wear off and I'm left with a mood crash and plenty of time to indulge it. Naturally, my thoughts turn to a midlife-crisis-like search for the change that would give my life the boost it so obviously needs: would a change of career bring me lasting happiness? What about a new hobby/project? A new gadget (surely an Apple watch would at least keep me amused a while longer) or a new car (my credit union just announced a special deal with Tesla)? Oddly, this is the first end-of-spring in some years (decades, perhaps) that has NOT  brought with it the idea of changing or questioning my religious affiliation. Maybe that is because I am already engaged in an extended process of doing so (becoming Jewish involves a lot of study and questioning, which I've noticed tend to continue after one becomes Jewish, and with all of it...

So I spent part of the last afternoon of Pesach surfing YouTube with my boys, listening to the rather impressive number of Passover-related song parodies that have been posted to that particular media hub. "Uptown Funk" parodies (think "Pesach Funk" and "Uptown Passover") seem particularly popular this year, as did riffs on Disney's "Let It Go". There was a Bieber-Adele mashup video (culminating in the feel-good moment of Moses shouting "Hello from the other side"  across the Red Sea to Pharoah) , and a hilarious "Bohemian Rhapsody" spoof that delighted my older boys (who at some point mysteriously became Queen fans). But the stage was stolen, as always, by the incredibly talented a capella group The Maccabeats, who led off our search for Pesach tunes with the traditional Jewish song "Dayeinu" ("it would be enough") re-sung in almost every musical genre of the 20th century, and ended our musical spree...

There is a common saying in Unitarian Universalist circles that people who discover UUism often feel like they have been UU's their whole lives without knowing it. I once felt that way, but – alas – the feeling didn't last forever.  Facebook's memories feature reminded me yesterday about how, just about exactly two years ago, I was engaged in the frustrating exercise of trying to launch a progressive Christian group at our local UU church. I had a ton of support from my UU brethren and sisteren, in the sense that a lot of people felt very strongly that the existence of such a group at their church was a Good Thing, but no participation . Sitting in that room by myself for several weeks running was more than just a lonely experience: it shook my faith that the group of people I was looking for – people who wanted to join together in some sort of belief in God, who valued the Judeo-Christian legacy of stories and teachings, who wanted to be part of a religion that wasn't...