A few years ago, Jackie Mason was on Broadway with hit shows. One of them was memorable in that it was called “Too Jewish.” Mason’s show was about his personal experience, (after all he changed his name to be Anglicized; Jackie Mason was born Yacov Moshe Maza) as well as that as the experience of other Jews. Mason was funny and accurate as he emphasized ambivalence of being Jewish and American. He recognized that Jews felt uncomfortable in being too visible as Jews in America.
Overseas, they experienced the same dichotomy. “The grandfather believes, the father doubts, the son denies. The grandfather prays in Hebrew, the father prays in French, the con does not pray at all. The grandfather has remained Jewish, the father is assimilated, the son no longer identifies.”
Mason has since retired since the landscape of American Jewry has changed. The jokes no longer work. The audience has changed. The new and older established generations are no longer conflicted. Like most of America and the rest of the world we have become more divided, separate and even polarized, not as Jews, though. We define ourselves as Republicans or Democrats or defenders of the downtrodden. We longer speak the same language – Yiddish or Hebrew or Ladino - or hold the practices that used to be ubiquitous among our people.
History is repetitive. This is not the first time Jews have confronted the adversary of broad acceptance and assimilation. While anti-Semitism is rising most of us are not personally affected by it and so it passes ignored. Hatred has often been the catalyst for embracing Jewish roots. Forced into ghettoes or denied access to higher education often pushed us into the arms of synagogues and yeshivot where we were warmly welcomed.
The playing field has clearly changed. How do we anticipate and respond to the needs of the twenty-first century Jew? Or perhaps the real question is, what does Judaism have to offer me that will uplift my life, make it more meaningful and contribute to my prosperity?
There is no simple response to these questions. They are complex and require deep thought.
The most obvious answer is continuity. You are Jewish because your parents were/are Jewish and your forbears wended their way through Asia and Europe and ultimately back to Mt. Sinai where we were forged as a nation. The thought that your line could end after all these millenia should make one shudder. Like an antique watch that your great grandfather once held, pawning it for a new Apple watch should be unthinkable. Yet, is that enough reason to send your children to Jewish camps and Religious School? Is that enough reason to light Shabbat candles and prepare a Shabbat table each Friday night?
A marginally less obvious response is that the strong emphasis on Talmud Torah (study of Biblical, Talmudic and ancillary texts) sparks our imagination and makes us aware of the power of human ingenuity and thought. To give serious and deliberate consideration to ancient and contemporary Torah-centric texts is to awaken oneself to the realization that the tradition is far richer and deeper than you ever imagined. It is no coincidence that the most creative geniuses of the past studied Talmud intensively giving them insights to life that were far beyond the zeitgeist, the moment in which they lived. That did not happen because they were Jewish: it happened because they were steeped in the art of pilpul, the distinct Jewish way to study and argumentation.
The least obvious answer is your soul. You possess a unique Jewish soul that is often somnolent. It has a voice that passes unheard. Only in moments of stress, pain or those rare moments of spiritual awakening do we feel the pulse of God coursing through our veins. In our faith we have three powerful pillars underpinnings: belief in God, revelation (God’s will manifest through the Torah and subsequent generations including you) and Divine ultimate justice. These pillars are the form and substance of our soul.
These are difficult shared times we have been living through since the beginning of the year. Each of us has been touched in different but powerful ways. The virus is not showing signs of weakening. This could be our time to reexamine our self-definition and move toward embracing our soulful identity. Now is opportune to restart our knowledge of Hebrew prayer, observance and ultimately identity.
There are numerous opportunities online to learn, read books of real Jewish value, listen to podcasts that teach Talmud and Torah, pick up your siddur and open your heart along with the book and allow yourself the chance to discover who we really are.
