Am I religious...are you?
Before I became confirmed in 2003, I didn't consider myself to be very religious. I am a reformed Jew; I don't keep kosher, I don't go to temple on Shabbat, I don't even have a Shabbat dinner, sometimes I used to babysit the little kids at temple during the High Holy days so I didn't have to sit in on the borin services and I most certainly never refrained from using electricity on Saturdays.
However, as I went through the Confirmation process I began to redefine the meaning of what it is to be religious in my mind. I realized that "going through the motions" is not being religious, it is picking the rituals that are the most important to us and then finding meaning in performing them. I do not go to temple every Friday night, but I do go on the anniversaries of my grandparents deaths. On these evenings, I light a yahrzeit candle in their honor and enjoy being at synagogue. Instead of going out of habit and wishing I was out with my friends, I am happy and feel deep meaning at being at services on these nights. And on these nights I don't jsut sit in the back waiting for the end of service, but sing every song I know and follow along with all of the prayers. Being at synagogue on these nights I feel spirtual and invigorating, while going every week would be cumbersome and boring for me. I thought about keeping kosher and realized that ritual did not hold any significance for me, personally. I saw it is an outdated health practice that was unnecessary and did not bring me closer to God. Keeping kosher would not make me feel like a better and more religious Jew.
I think being religious means questioning our official religions' practices and finding how we can adopt them to create our own personal relationship with it whether it be Judaism, Christianity or anything else. I know I can always strive to be a better Jew. And I know the answer is not by prohibiting myself from dozing off during a sermon, but maybe by understanding a new passage of Torah and interpreting its meaning or helping a neighbor write her sermon for her Bat Mitzvah. These intentional acts of meaning are what makes us more religious and that is why now when people ask me whether or not I am religious I give an affirmative yes without hesitation.
However, as I went through the Confirmation process I began to redefine the meaning of what it is to be religious in my mind. I realized that "going through the motions" is not being religious, it is picking the rituals that are the most important to us and then finding meaning in performing them. I do not go to temple every Friday night, but I do go on the anniversaries of my grandparents deaths. On these evenings, I light a yahrzeit candle in their honor and enjoy being at synagogue. Instead of going out of habit and wishing I was out with my friends, I am happy and feel deep meaning at being at services on these nights. And on these nights I don't jsut sit in the back waiting for the end of service, but sing every song I know and follow along with all of the prayers. Being at synagogue on these nights I feel spirtual and invigorating, while going every week would be cumbersome and boring for me. I thought about keeping kosher and realized that ritual did not hold any significance for me, personally. I saw it is an outdated health practice that was unnecessary and did not bring me closer to God. Keeping kosher would not make me feel like a better and more religious Jew.
I think being religious means questioning our official religions' practices and finding how we can adopt them to create our own personal relationship with it whether it be Judaism, Christianity or anything else. I know I can always strive to be a better Jew. And I know the answer is not by prohibiting myself from dozing off during a sermon, but maybe by understanding a new passage of Torah and interpreting its meaning or helping a neighbor write her sermon for her Bat Mitzvah. These intentional acts of meaning are what makes us more religious and that is why now when people ask me whether or not I am religious I give an affirmative yes without hesitation.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home