Personal Reflections

During the Jewish holidays of the year 5745 (1984) I once again experienced how much nourishment I personally derive from attending synagogue services. Permit me to share some of my feelings.

As has been my custom since childhood, I attend not only the so-called major holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur but also on Sukkot, Pesach and Shavuot.

Each holiday, listening to and participating in prayers in the atmosphere of the schul, I find my spirits revitalized. I feel enriched, enhanced, and linked to both the past of my ancestors and the future of my progeny.

Above the mundane and secular aspects of synagogue membership, I attain at services a spiritual communion with a Higher Authority that, for me, is comforting.

Watching the tallis-draped men march around waving their lulavim and etrogim on Sukkot, and the joyous procession dancing with the Torah on Simchat Torah, is an inspiring experience for me.

The synagogue I attended for Sukkot was filled on Thursday and Friday with young men from 18 to 35, many of them with one or more small children in tow. They were gentle and permissive with their youngsters and, in turn, the children (most under 5) were responsive to the rare admonitions on the part of their fathers. It was heart-warming, and it made me feel good that the old traditions were still being handed down to a following generation.

These young men celebrating the holidays and staying away from their jobs on the 6 weekdays encompassed within this year's holiday period, reminded me of my own experiences. I have never attended school or worked on any Jewish holiday, and somehow have managed without feeling handicapped by such observance.

When I attended public school, I always felt that God watched over me so I would have fewer absences for illness since I already missed school for the Jewish holidays.

At Harvard Law School when one of my final exams fell on Yom Kippur, I paid to have a proctor assigned to keep an eye on me during the day at the synagogue. At nightfall when services ended and I had broken my fast, I took the same exam given my classmate earlier that day.

It didn't hamper me academically to stay out of classes on all Jewish holidays. In my professional life my employers, associates and clients excused any work absences due to religious reasons and respected me for such observances (even more so if they were non-Jewish). During almost 4 years of military service I succeeded in following most of my traditional religious practices.

I am not a religious fanatic; nor do I wear my religion on my sleeve as a badge of honor; nor have I ever importuned anyone (my children included) to follow my path; but I do confess to a satisfying sense of contentment and feeling of peace in following my religious dictates.

On occasion I have reflected on why the Jews have survived for over 5000 years despite conquest, persecution, and no land of their own, while the equally ancient and fabled empires of Babylon, Persia and Rome are relegated to being chapters of remote history.

My own feeling is that, somehow, it is tied up with the Jewish laws, traditions, rituals and customs which have been handed down from generation to generation and which set us apart wherever we lived in the Diaspora. The Jewish Bible and teachings of 3000 years ago, setting forth among other things a commendable code of ethical behavior, predate the Magna Carta and our own Constitution and, like those historic documents, still have relevance today.

Our code of ethical behavior still relevant

How gratified I am that the Jews are known as the "People of the Book" and always have been a people ruled by law rather then men.

I have never found it necessary to defend in toto all the ritualistic practices and liturgy found in the Bible.

Nonetheless, since I have the sense that many of my ancestors unquestionably died for their beliefs, the least I could do is to not discard them abusively but, at worst, be benevolently non-observant.

I am imbued with the moral values and social philosophy propounded in ancient Jewish teachings: to feed the stranger in your midst before yourself; to dispense charity anonymously; to respect the elderly. Those are precepts which I find meritorious.

Traditional Jewish concern for the homeless, the hungry and the helpless touches a responsive chord and has molded my thinking and outlook since childhood.

My economic and political philosophy is shaped more by these long-standing feelings than by my financial status.

Any temporary discomfort that my religious observances may have caused me has been more than outweighed by the solace and spiritual comfort such observances have provided.

For me, it has been a caring, compassionate and tolerant religion.

Those young men I saw at services and my own life bear testimony to the fact that one can be faithful to the symbols, rituals and values of our Jewish heritage and yet live a complete and productive life within American society at large.