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Home Presentation for Yom Kippur Symposium 5767, October 2, 2006
Good Afternoon - for those fasting, I wish you an easy fast.
In recent years, if someone asked me to help in one way and there was no obvious reason to say NO, then the answer was YES. That's how I got here today.
I didn't realize that the answer to the question, “What has been the impact of Judaism on my life?” was going to have to be much more than a Rorschach, 30-second sound byte, but was rather, the review and summation of my Jewish life.
I've decided that to answer the question, I need to divide it into two parts.
What has Judaism's impact been on the Terrestrial side of my life? That is the interface with people in the world around me.
The second area is then the Celestial side of my life, that is, the relationship between a supreme being and me.
Before going on, I need to say that I believe the impact of Judaism on one's life is different at different times and probably changes during a lifetime.
My earliest memory of something Jewish was when I was about 5 years old. Thus, what I'm offering here is a drastically abridged version of the last 70 years of my life.
I attended a “cheder,” one room school in the basement of someone's private home. Our teacher was an old “Rebe,” (to the 5-year olds). The students were there to learn to read from the prayer book, in Hebrew. The Rebe's entire arsenal of pedagogical tools consisted of a 12-inch wooden ruler to help the students to get pronunciation and sound correct. Over a period of time, we did learn to read, but not to understand or to know what we were reading - a mixed blessing at best.
Another memory that remains clear to me even today is the preparation for Shabbat on Fridays. The house was being cleaned, my mother was preparing the food for that evening, and what would be eaten cold on Saturday. I can still remember the aroma in the kitchen - chicken soup, perhaps a brisket cooking; and a challah in the oven, braided with four plaits of dough, rather than the normal three that girls used to braid their hair.
It was difficult for my mother to wash the floor each week, so I was brought into the preparations. I would, on hands and knees, wash the floor with a bristle brush and a pail of soapy water. My reward for this job was 15 cents, just enough for an afternoon of two features and at least one chapter in the Flash Gordon serial at the local movie house.
As time went on, my father became more “frum,” that is, observant. Before Shabbat, he would choose which lights would remain on throughout the Sabbath, he would remove the bulb from the light in the refrigerator to ensure that he would not “kindle” a light, should he open the refrigerator. He liked a cup of tea in the afternoon and would set the kettle on a small flame prior to sundown Friday that remained lit until Saturday evening.
Another memory was the time in high school that I was called “dirty Jew” and ended in a fight. On my way home, all I could think about was my torn trousers. When I got home, my mother's first thought was if I was all right. My father could see that I was dirty, torn but okay and wanted to know the condition of the other boy - after that I wasn't bothered again.
I had never been away from home for any length of time, so when it came time for college, I persuaded my parents to let me attend a small Protestant college near Columbus, Ohio. (I don't think my father ever knew that it was a church-sponsored school.) All students were required to attend Chapel four times a week. It was there that I learned, if you don't discuss who your God is or which is the correct God, that Judaism and Christianity may be more alike than many of us would think. I suffered no mental scars from my Chapel experience and learned how to better live in the larger community.
When Rosh Hashanah was near, I felt the need to attend holiday services that were not available in that small town. I asked the Dean of the College for help. He called around and found a congregation in Columbus that welcomed me that year and the next. After that, I transferred to a New York City school.
It was during the high school, college, and early working years that I continued to understand our religion better. Ethics, morals, honesty, charity, healing the ailments of the world, and improving the society that we live in, were all things that I could relate to, understand, and be comfortable with. Over the last 50 years, 40 of them in San Antonio, I've practiced what I learned, taught where I could, and have become more and more comfortable in my Judaism.
During the years I've lived here, I've always had at least one involvement in the volunteer world, and many times, multiple affiliations. For the last several years, my favorite charitable activity has been delivering Meal on Wheels, where the payment I get are the expressions of “thank you” and “God bless you” from the people, who in many cases, have difficulty getting to the door to receive their meal.
To sum up - for the Terrestrial part of the question, that is, the interface with the world and the people around us, Judaism has provided a good set of rules to live by and with, rules that I'm comfortable with and have never led me astray and have stood me well in our society.
As for the Celestial part of the question, the answer is not nearly as clear to me. For years, I searched for a basis to completely believe in a supreme being that watches over all of us. I haven't found that evidence yet. I envy all those good people, Jews and Gentiles, that have been able to believe, and are comfortable in their belief, which gives them a kind of peace that I haven't found yet.
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