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To Shema or Not to Shema?

August 16, 2010 By punktorah

Originally published on 3xDaily

Are you there Hashem? It’s me, Gefiltepunker.

Recently I attended a film screening of USHPIZIN. It’s the story of a Hasidic ‘Baal Teshuva’ (returning to Judaism), couple who lives in the Breslov community in Jerusalem. They are questioning and exploring their faith in G-D as they deal with infertility, financial hardship and are tested and pushed to the limits by an unruly, ex- convict, pair of guests from the protagonist’s past, who show up for Sukkot. In the end, G-D has delivered, but prayer is what has inextricably carried them through to their happy ending.

And this is what got me thinking and questioning. How important is prayer in your life? For the couple in this movie prayer was essential in their daily routine, it was a very direct request, reaching out to G-D to explain and show mercy so that they could further their worship of G-D. How do you put your prayer into practice? What do you expect as a result of your prayers? Can we expect miracles/ G-D to always answer our prayers? Or do we pray for G-D just to guide us, but in a way for us to help ourselves?

How we do it, the frequency and effort that we put into it and what we expect in return will vary from Jew to Jew. My friend who attended the screening with me also raised the question, “What’s your daily prayer?” She herself was trying to find a prayer that spoke to her sensibilities, felt warm and inviting and to carry her through her own day. At which point I immediately suggested the Shema, which is my personal go-to prayer. I recalled always reciting the Shema carefully in Hebrew school. I often found myself speed reading through other morning prayers just to get through it and on to the next, but not with Shema. Even though I don’t remember all the words by heart, I think of it and I recite it to myself in my own personal times of need.

My friend had a very different reaction to the prayer. She found it cold, uninviting, just not as meaningful to her as I found it. We had very different pre-existing relationships and attitudes toward this prayer. Any suggestions out there from folks of how to find the prayer that’s right for you?

Filed Under: Judaism & Belief, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Rants Tagged With: convert to judaism, Counterculture, darshan yeshiva, holiday, Holidays, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Punk, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Religion, shema, Torah, ushpizin

What Is Jewish Community?

August 6, 2010 By punktorah

What does community look like in the 21st Century?

Can you have a Jewish community online?

We say yes.

Tell us if you agree.

Or if you don’t!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3933T1a7aPQ

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Judaism & Belief, Podcasts & Videos, Your Questions Answered Tagged With: community, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, Counterculture, darshan yeshiva, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Punk, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rebel, Religion, Torah

To Make A Kiddush Hashem Or To Do The Right Thing?

August 3, 2010 By punktorah

(Originally posted here)

That is the question…

In yeshiva I found a wallet while riding my bike once, after telling someone, I forget who, possibly a beis medrish guy – he told me some shocking news. He told me that there was a whole gemara about not returning things to non-Jews and not giving them gifts, I was shocked and super happy at the time, years later I regret the whole incident, but my Rosh Yeshiva confirmed the news, he said that the guy could get a new license and the chances of him knowing what a Jew was were slim and that meant that no Kiddush hashem could be made so halachically I shouldn’t return it. You cannot imagine the joy of being told as a 15 year old who wondered about the silly stringencies in yeshiva dorm life that it was halachically demanded that I keep a lost wallet, I was overjoyed and told my father who confirmed the Rosh Yeshiva’s ruling and told me about the gemara, for a split second I thought maybe I would take an interest in gemara, I didn’t until my late 20’s, but I digress.

I was sitting at the table this past Friday night when an interesting conversation in a similar vein took place. The conversation revolved around doing things because they are the right thing to do, versus doing them for a Kiddush Hashem and that concept really struck me. It struck me how we are constantly being told to do things to make a Kiddush Hashem, not because they are the right thing to do and I personally think that’s a pretty crappy way to teach people the difference between right and wrong.

In someone is always paying attention to making a Kiddush Hashem, basically showing someone that because they are openly Jews they are going to do the right thing, that seems to take away from the whole thing in the first place. If we said to our children “do this because it’s the right thing to do” rather than “do this because it’s a Kiddush Hashem” it seems to be a much better lesson. If we teach people to do something because it’s the right thing to do, they will always do it no matter if they can be identified as a Jew or not. I can imagine people doing things that shouldn’t be done because they are lacking the public statement of being Jews.

It sounds way nicer and more moral to say something like returning this lost wallet is the right thing to do rather than “I will get a Kiddush hashem for returning this lost object.”In this case I would have to take the heretical route and go against the Torah, because in my mind keeping the wallet is wrong, regardless of the gemaras teachings, although I don’t think it’s heretical to disagree with something that has some outdated philosophies. I am sure that back in the day, returning a lost object may have been excuse to start a pogrom or something, but these days it’s likely to spark a nice post on the local craigslist rants and raves section.

Filed Under: Judaism & Belief, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Rants Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, good deeds, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, kiddush hashem, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, rebel, Religion, Torah

What’s Up With Tzitzit?

July 16, 2010 By punktorah

The who, what, why, how, and when of tzitzit.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGwkKri0N2A

Filed Under: Judaism & Belief, Podcasts & Videos, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Your Questions Answered Tagged With: Jewish, Jews, Judaism, mitzvah, mitzvot, Religion, tallis, tallit, tallit gadol, tallit katan, ten commandments, Torah, tzitzit

Service of the Heart?

July 12, 2010 By punktorah

I’ve neglected going to services lately because I am really not comfortable there. We go in, we pick up a siddur, we sit down, and invariably our daughter either wakes up or jumps down and starts running around. All the old bubbies start to murmur and give us dirty looks and then my wife has to escort the little vilde chaya out the door while I stay and daven alone. This is fine. It is routine and I expect it, though I’m saddened that we have to be separated during what I consider to be a both personally spiritually important time and a good spiritual environment for the kid.

My real disappointment lies in the way we are holding modern, “liberal-type” services.  We all sit in rows in a fancy sanctuary, sing songs and follow along and do the “call and response” type of thing. We listen patiently as the leader drones in that “poetry/sing-songy/disingenuous” kind of high pitched voice. And it struck me that it was all so, for lack of a better word, “church-y”. I hated it. It feels like it is copying the Protestant style of Western church worship, from the music to the atmosphere. Someone at the service even made a comment (jokingly, I think) about being “quiet at church”. I thought to myself, “Shouldn’t this be different than church? Why are we trying to be like that? To fit in? No thanks.” We are different, and that should be a good thing. Jews always have been different. We’re iconoclasts! We break down walls and smash idols! Heck, we’re different from each other! You know that old chestnut, “two Jews, three opinions”!

My first exposure to a Chabad type service was really, interesting. We were on vacation, so we went somewhere we normally wouldn’t have gone. This was very different. Everyone seemed to be mumbling and shuckling and I had no idea where I was in the service. After  fifteen minutes I gave up trying and I just followed along as best I could. The shaliach’s kids came right up to him and he would pick up the little ones in between prayers. It was pretty overwhelming and a disorienting.
The same type of thing happened later when I was at a much smaller minyan and everyone was davening at different speeds. I got flustered and frustrated. I even got mad at the guy next to me for going so fast and not doing it “right”.  After thinking later about why I got angry, what about everyone not praying together made me some upset, I figured it out.

Jacob Siegel, in a fantastic post you should check out, put it like this:

In the middle of this cacophony of prayers,  “I would form my own personal connection with G-d, and you, praying beside me, would do the same, and we would each be vocalizing at different paces, and we would each be inspiring the other to achieve a spiritual awareness that we would then carry throughout the day.” This is incredible to me. It is that independence in the midst of community, what I consider almost the definition of Yiddshkeit, that electrifies my neshama.

I’m not saying one way is right and the other wrong. I am saying that it is a shame if we are changing our nature to conform to an idea of what a progressive, liberal service should look like. Something that IndieYeshiva and PunkTorah are trying to do is to bring these ideas back into the way we “do” Jewish, and have them there for us, to make our Yiddishkeit genuine and real, and by “genuine and real” I don’t mean specifically that there is one right way to do things, but a way that resonates with our past. I’m taking about an Integral Judaism that would transcend and include the past (more on that in another post).

I would like to, if I may, let Mr. Siegel take us out, because any paraphrasing on my part would be just that, and I feel he puts is very eloquently:

‘When we pray, we share our energy. I davven, and you hear me and feel inspired, and I hear you and feel further inspired. Let’s thank our cantors for their efforts in service of us and G-d, and ask them to step down from the bimah and stand beside us, as we now all share together in our cleaving to G-d.”

Yasher Koach.

Michael ארי

Filed Under: Judaism & Belief, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Rants Tagged With: Counterculture, darshan yeshiva, daven, integral, Jewish, Judaism, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, prayer, Punk, punktorah, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Religion, service, shul, siddur, synagogue, temple, Torah

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