Gettin' Me Some Religion

Tonight we went to temple. Which I love. It might come across as a little freaky that I love going to temple since I’m sort of left wing, and not a religious nut, but I’ll explain why. First of all, being that there are hardly any Jews around, it’s a tiny congregation that meets only once a month in what looks like an old New England church tucked between a bank and old Town Hall. Until you look closely and see the shofars in the stained glass window instead of crosses. We are so small, we don’t even have a rabbi. The head of the Southeastern Connecticut Jewish Federation (or some group like that) has been leading our services for as long as I’ve been going (12 years now). Although not a “real” rabbi, he embodies all of the social and political roles that I would expect a rabbi to honor, but can’t chant in tune to save his life. Except for the fact that he is trying to sell me on sending my kids to the local Solomon Schecter (just a step above homeschooling, as far as I’m concerned), I think he is great. It’s a strangely conservative service considering the lack of rabbi and transient congregation. But it meets our spiritual needs.

Secondly, I’m fascinated by organized religion on all sorts of levels. I blame this on hybrid vigour, not having ANY religion imposed on me growing up, and an overwhelming exposure to renaissance art which heavily favours crucifixion, resurrection, and annunciation as themes when quite young and impressionable. I’m willing to accept almost any theory, as long as I agree with it. Makes sense, huh? For instance, on a recent trip to Egypt, I was all set to get behind Islam till they got to the part where they don’t believe in evolution. They lost me there. But I do like the idea of prophets. It’s kind of like standing up for the rights of lunatics.

I asked my son, Rabbit Junior, if he understood what it meant to be Jewish – a tough question since we three are the only ones in town, and I’ve been derelict in the small rabbits’ religious education other than my own bizarre interpretation based on the above. To his credit, he said, “Jews brought the message that there was one God.” Whether or not he’s right, it was a pretty darn good answer. And it gets us off the arrogant hook for all that “chosen people” stuff.

Here’s why I can dig Judaism (besides the fact that it is my cultural background:

Take responsibility for your mistakes. If you screw up, you have to admit it. To the person you screwed up with, not some anonymous priest type guy. If you say something mean about someone, you HAVE to tell them (according to Jewish law), and you HAVE to apologize to them. And they HAVE to accept your apology. Isn’t that GREAT? Nothing like taking the bull by the horns, or the goat by the scape, or whatever. Yom Kippur is just the best for that very reason.

Don’t pick the corn at the edge of your fields. Got that? You have to leave snacks for the poor. Tzedekah, we call it. Which loosely translates as charity, but it is an expected charity, not the kind you get to take off on your taxes. Also mitzvot (performing good deeds). Doing good is part of our culture. Cool, huh? So let that person pull out in front of you at the merge. Or run after the lady who let her bag of groceries sit on the counter. It's what you're SUPPOSED to do. You don't get bonus points. But you don't get any taken away either.

Our prayers are nifty. Like the silent Amidah, which is part of every service: “guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile. To those who curse me, let my soul be silent; and let my soul be like dust to everyone. Open my heart to Your Torah, then my soul will pursue Your commandments. As for all those who design evil against me, speedily nullify their counsel and disrupt their design.”

And it’s not JUST about what you say (although adhering to those principals has cut way down on my cattiness), it’s about what’s in your heart. It’s all about choosing good over evil (look what happened in the Star Wars sextet), and not pawning it off on someone else, or hoping to confess about doing something awful like cutting social security, or bombing Iraq, and then feeling a sense of righteousness because you’ve been saved.

There are high expectations for Jews. It’s not about heaven and hell and what happens later, it’s about the here (and hear) and now – you’re supposed to behave well all along. So I try to. And intermixed with my weird feeling that I’m sometimes IN a renaissance painting, my love for the Requia written by every classical composer, my holiday tree, lights, and gingerbread construction in December, my belief in a Karmic Bank, and my lone Ranger status in town, I am as good a Jew as I can be.

Alvenu Malkenu (our Father, our King), frustrate the designs of my enemies.