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From: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Beacon from a lost sheep from 11 lightyears away.
Message-ID: <2409@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Oct-85 11:38:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.2409
Posted: Tue Oct 15 11:38:13 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Oct-85 05:20:26 EDT
References: <808@nmtvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Organization: System Development Corp. R+D, Santa Monica
Lines: 88
Summary: 

Hello there, O alien/lost sheep

Nice to hear from you.  Maybe I should follow your approach and start out
with where I'm coming from.

I was raised as a Reform Jew in Los Angeles, as were my parents.
My Jewish education didn't include any Hebrew but lots of history and a
fair amount of theology/learning standard prayers.  We didn't touch on
the Holocaust until the senior year (when we were 14).  We'd spent the
previous year on Comparative Religion, which included studying the Christian
Bible and learning where it went wrong.  We did have to attend synagogue
and sign in a certain number of times (I think it was 30) during the senior
year in order to graduate religious school.

Dissent was allowed as much at religious school as elsewhere.  I remember
once telling our rabbi I didn't like his saying during the course of the
service, "And now we rise for the watchword of our faith, the Shema."  It
seemed all too much like a commercial.  He smiled and said wistfully,
"But you see, not everybody in the congregation went to religious school, and
some of them don't know it's our watchword.  I feel I have to tell them."
I forget what I as a 13-year-old had to say to that, but I do remember
the discussion went on for some time.

Our religious school teachers were fairly persuasive but I don't remember
any spellbinders.  And of course in a Reform temple, there weren't many
you'd call militant traditionalists.  We were taught that Jews had chosen
to accept the obligations and traditions of our religion--and had therefore
wound up with a wonderful faith, one that coudl be believed in the modern
age of science without having to compartmentalize one's mind into matters of
science which were subject to common sense--and matters of faith that
weren't.

We were taught that non-Jews had their own religions which were good enough
for them (at least provided they followed the Noachic laws) but not good
enough for us.  We were certainly not taught any paranoia about non-Jews
in America, though we did learn that they had behaved very cruelly over the
years to our ancestors.  The Syrian persecution, the Roman persecution, the
Inquisition, the Holocaust were all part of the same picture--showing how
ignorance, fear, and propaganda could turn human beings into cruel mobs.

I spent my last few years of religious school watching coverage of the Korean
War, not the Viet Nam War.  My parent sometimes spanked me but never beat
me.  My father was an atheist who called himself Jewish in order not to give
any ground to Anti-semites.  My mother celebrated Passover and attended
services on the High Holidays.  I was a rebel nonconformist who wanted to
have more Judaism in my life.  I married a man who fell in the same category
and we've been very happy ever since.

Now down to the text of your letter.

Judaism does not say you have to feel the presence of God.  It doesn't even
put all that much emphasis on believing in God.  Having your good deeds
exceed your faith is preferble to the reverse.  It's a truism that Judaism
is not an Orthodoxy (right-faith) but an Orthopraxy (right-conduct).

Judaism prides itself of having lots of mitzvot (commandments) which sanctify
us (as in the standard prayer beginning).  It also stresses that the Law3
was given to live by, not die by, and that all but a few of these command-
ments MUST be broken to save human life--and sanity.

I'm glad you've come back a fair ways to regaining joy in life and trustd
in other human beings.  You might indeed want to give Judaism a try again.
If you really feel that giving up shrimp sushi would be impossible, then by
all means give Reform Judaism a try.  Strogonoff can be made with fake sour
cream which is fine unless you're on a low cholesterol diet.
And you're not on that if you're eating lobster and shrimp.
There's certainly nothing tref about the various fish sushi with yellowtail,
smoked salmon, tuna, etc.--unless you're abiding by the Orthodox
interpretation of the commandment about not eating meat with blood to
mean you can't eat things raw.  (Even then, the smoked slamon would be OK.)
Maybe someone will enlighten me as to how croissants are non-kosher.

Whether or not you're Jewish, you will never be able to control your own
destiny outright.  You're only one person in a world with billions, and
your destiny is influenced by the economy, international politics, and all
sorts of things you can't control.  There's a lot more to Judaism than the
siege mentality of your upbringing.  You might want to give the other
wings of the religion a look.  I imagine you'll eventually find a group
that makes you feel comfortable; Judaism has room for lots of variety.

Please feel free to reply to me, either on the net or personally.  With a
letter this long, I'd have sent it as a personal reply but couldn't figure
out enough of your address to do so.  Good luck.

Sincerely,

Lee Gold ...ucbvax!ucla-cs!lcc!barry
(or use the sdcrdcf address if there's enough of it to be readable)