Comments on: On Simchat Torah: unraveling joy

By: Mark Connor

Mark Connor — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:27:15 +0000

The contradictions, the relatives who’d never accept Torah without asking why, remind me of people I met at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in ‘93 and ‘94 who, like poet Natalie Goldberg in the 1970s, became Buddhist. Remained Jewish but practiced the flexibility of Buddhism while expressing the Jewish value of intellectual exploration. Also, in reference to the stability and happiness found in the rigid restrictions of the law, I am reminded of Catholic writer Matthew Kelley, who asserts that free will exists so that when we’ve exausted our own ideas of what will make us happy, we’ll go back to God, accepting the rules, because doing God’s will for us is the only way we’ll be happy.

By: Jenna Z

Jenna Z — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:43:05 +0000

Thank you, Elissa and Mary. I agree with you both, the contradictions are what make it all so interesting!

By: Mary Stevens

Mary Stevens — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:41:53 +0000

Being raised in a rigid “Evangelical Christian” home, I too have experienced many contradictions in faith and ‘real life’. But now as a middle aged adult, I have come to “value the values” I was so sternly taught. For at least these have given me a structure upon which to make my OWN choices. Different religions but certainly similar uncertainties.

By: Elissa Mautner

Elissa Mautner — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:59:46 +0000

There are many many contradictions involved with being Jewish. And then there are the things about it that are simply and purely wonderful. This article does a marvellous job of capturing all this.