I had an interesting thought this weekend...I was thinking about my life as a religious Jew and what that means to the world today. If I were born into the world of my grandparents, and great grandparents - I would find myself in Russia, a place where being a Jew was not something you wanted the world to know about. If you practiced Judaism, you did it in the safety of your own home, amongst only your family.
Alas, I was not born into that world, but a quite different one. I was born into a world post emigration into America. My world is one where everything started and still is about Americanization. How can we fit in more and more and even more? I was born into a world where practices of the past seem silly and outdated and go mostly ignored.
And now, at the age of 26, I find myself sinking further and further into the past. I chose not to buy into the American "dream" (but not in the sense of having a white picket fence) but rather pursue a different path than my parents intended. I've spent the last few years learning about a culture forlorn and forgotten by my family - looking into our roots, our traditions. What I've found is really beyond the scope of this blog, but I will say it was worthwhile to change my life for.
Here's where I think it gets interesting...back in Russia, it was forbidden to practice Judaism outwardly. NOW - I live in a world where it is no longer taboo or forbidden in public, but shunned instead from the inside. We have tried so hard to separate ourselves from our painful past, that we no longer remember why we are still running. I propose that we stop and re-evaluate.
