Hellenistic Vs. Today

In our Jewish History class, we are discussing the Hellenistic period when the Greeks ruled over the Israelites. A major issue that the Jews had during this time was deciding between weather to embrace their Israeli culture or the new Greek culture that was so dominant over them. For me, I’ve always felt like I’m at a bit of an awkward position regarding how others view how religious I am personally. To me, I consider myself very Jewish; I go to temple multiple times a week and am involved in many extra curricular activities there. But according to most Jews, I’m not actually Jewish, because my mom is Christian, and my dad is Jewish, and your religion is based on your mother’s religion. Its happened more than a few times that people have told me that I’m not actually Jewish and there is nothing more frustrating than that. I think this is most likely how most of the Jews saw themselves. A large part of them probably wanted to think of themselves as Jewish, but couldn’t ignore the fact that they were assimilating to the Hellenistic culture and values. While being surrounded by a predominately Christian culture, we are exposed to a variety of beliefs that differ greatly from ours.

Avraham, Avraham!

One of my favorite parts of Jewish History right now is actually reading the stories from the תנייך. Of course I have already heard the majority of the stories but I almost never actually read into the meaning of the words. During my Jewish History exam the other day, I was writing an essay and somehow connected it to the story of Va-Yera, when Abraham was about to sacrifice Issac. While my eyes glossed over the page I notice in English that it said, "Abraham, Abraham" and I thought for a second how strangely familiar it sounded. Of course it rang a bell in my head, because that was the Torah portion that I read at this years High Holy Day service on יום קיפור. I remember two or three years ago when my brother had that same portion and I always thought, "why is it repeating Abraham twice?" I had my own guess that it was the end of one sentence and the beginning of another, but clearly I was wrong. I never took the time out of my day to connect that what I was reading was G-D saying to Abraham, "no no, stop Abraham., don’t sacrifice your son." After I finished my test I went back to my room and chanted the portion in Hebrew and read the English. I was amazed to find out the real meaning of the words that I sang so many times. In the parsha it says that Abraham has bound Isaac to the alter and has picked up his knife. I think my favorite part of the story is when G-D tells Abraham to stop and not sacrifice his son.

While we were at Tel Gezer, we talked about how the Cannonites preformed human sacrifices. One of the things that differentiated Judaism from these other religions of the time were that along with being monotheistic, they also did not preform human sacrifices. Wether we know or not if these stories are true, we can take away morals from this story about respecting other people above all. One of the major themes throughout the Tanakh is respecting others and in a way, that has to do with not sacrificing your children.

IDF

The cultural differences between Israel and the United States that I have seen thus far have not been too major, however, one thing that I found particularly alarming was that in every crowded public area we went to, I saw many soldiers carrying guns. For the people that have lived in Israel, I am sure that they are used to this being a part of their everyday lives, however for me, it was quite alarming and made me tense up frequently. The first place where I noticed this was on Friday, when we went to the Shuk in Jerusalem and I continued to see them at the various places we visited this weekend. Are the soldiers there for the safety of others, or do they happen to be going around a market in Jerusalem with guns because they are still required to wear their uniform as part of the IDF service? 

On every Tiyul that we go on, we are required to have guards. I like all of the precautions taken by EIE to ensure our safety, however, I wish that Israelis were safe enough to not have to go to those extremes. In two weeks, I will be at the mock Israeli military base, Gadna, where I will train like a member of the IDF. Even though for Israelis it is normal to do military service after they turn eighteen, I think that everyone should be given the opportunity to choose for themselves weather they want to serve or not. Israel is such a small country, with many security concerns, so an army is necessary. I know that there is most likely no better system to ensure the safety of Israelis and maintain control over the Jewish state, however it would be ideal to have the option to choose, like most people enlisting in armies have the ability to do. 

Obsessive, Compulsive, and Orthodox Response

I read the very interesting article about a Jewish woman that has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and how it affects nearly every aspect of her life. As an Orthodox Jew,  it must be very difficult to have your prayer disrupted by compulsive thoughts or actions. The significance that the disturbing images played in this woman's mind was so interesting to read about. She truly felt that because she had images of Jesus flash in her mind during prayer, she was no longer Jewish. Another thing that struck me was how self conscious she became around others, even her own husband, about the images she saw while praying. For an Orthodox Jew, prayer is one of the holiest things there is. To them, not being focused in prayer is a terrible crime. For me while praying, I think less about the Hebrew part of the prayer that we are all saying together, but more about my individual prayers.  The English meaning of our prayers, and the extra passages we have on the side also play a huge role in the way I pray.  For me, its important to let my mind wander for a bit while in prayer because I need to not only be connected with the rest of my culture, but with myself as well, and there is no better time then when praying. I think the passages on the side are also extremely relevant. When we are told to pray silently during the Tifilah service, instead of reading the Hebrew, which I would not understand, I read the English sections that are often about helping others and the importance of community.
While I am not aware of how difficult it must be to pray with an obsessive compulsion, I do know what its like to live many days with certain uncontrollable behaviors that could potentially limit my every day behaviors. I do not have OCD, but I do display similar qualities that people with OCD display. I wash my hands quite frequently, to similar measures as the woman in the article. Similarly, I get very worried about possessions and that everything has a specific place. I know that my forms of controlling the things around me have the ability to impact others, but I hope that on this trip, I will be able to let go of some of those fears. I hope that I will not feel the need to always be so clean, or have everything so organized. I can already tell that living with others that may not be the neatest has bothered me a bit, but I hope that it will help me loosen up and stop being as neat myself. Overall, I think this article gave me a lot of insight on how prayer is meaningful for everyone in very different ways.

http://tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/188464/obsessive-compulsive-orthodox

The Tanakh and Tradition

The other day in my Jewish History class (which meets for three hours every day) we learned about the Tanakh, which is a Jewish combination of the Torah (Five Books of Moses), the Nevi'im (The Prophets), and the Kethuvim (The Writings). The Tanakh is the basis for how to live a "Jewish" life according to tradition. The combination of the three writings has created this large, basically history of the Jewish people. A major issue in reformed Judaism is weather or not the Tanakh can be credible and if we should believe everything that is written in it. Some of the key flaws in Reformed Judaism is that we are given the option to choose what we want to believe in and how religious we want to be. As a child, I loved hearing the stories of the Torah and having them gave me a sense of connection to my ancestors. I believe in the stories that are written in the Torah and Tanakh, but I think that some of them are exaggerated a bit, and the truth is stretched. However, the main premises for the Tanakh is what moral lessons we learn from reading it. I think that for the most part, a lot of cultures have ethical views that can be displayed in special books of that religion, and for the most part, they all have good insight on ethical values that can be passed down for generations. What makes us all different is how we interpret our stories to make our lives more meaningful. Over the course of this semester, I hope to wrestle with this question more, and the broader question of what it means to be Jewish.