Everyday Mystics III: It Would Have Been Enough

[gentle music] Similar to other suburban East Coast progressive Jewish families, Todd was raised to understand Judaism through the lens of community.

It was a religion of social connection and social change.

They went to a Reform temple.

There were bar and bat mitzvahs.

There was Jewish history, community, and a concern for social justice.

His father wanted those things for his children, even as he resisted religious observance himself.

It was a community rich in human connection, but not the space they were taught to search for meaningful responses to life's questions.

Looking back, Todd found a phrase for what his own Jewish education had been missing.

So I saw this recently.

Someone described this type of, of Jewish education that we've had, you know, i- it's sort of skim milk Judaism in that the real focus of the, the education you get from, you know, starting at three years old till the time you're 12 or 13 is like, "We gotta prepare you for the bar or bat mitzvah." So it means, you know, we spend a bunch of time kind of learning Hebrew in the sense of learning prayers and reciting them and repeating them, and so that you're gonna get to a point where you can do your bat mitzvah or your bar mitzvah, but you don't actually try to learn the language.

Todd learned to recite the prayers, but he had no idea what they meant, and it felt at the time like the Jewish environment he was raised in was also uninterested in helping him discover what those prayers might have to do with his life he was actually living, the frustration, the longing, the difficulty of being himself.

Religion was for community, not for moral depth.

Yeah, I'd say my dad, you know, had a lot of deep love between us, but certainly in dealing with any type of internal problems or crisis, it never, I think, would've occurred to him or to sort of say like, "Let's talk about how Judaism can, can help us here." That was just not a thing.

[gentle music]

[gentle music] Similar to other suburban East Coast progressive Jewish families, Todd was raised to understand Judaism through the lens of community.

It was a religion of social connection and social change.

They went to a Reform temple.

There were bar and bat mitzvahs.

There was Jewish history, community, and a concern for social justice.

His father wanted those things for his children, even as he resisted religious observance himself.

It was a community rich in human connection, but not the space they were taught to search for meaningful responses to life's questions.

Looking back, Todd found a phrase for what his own Jewish education had been missing.

So I saw this recently.

Someone described this type of, of Jewish education that we've had, you know, i- it's sort of skim milk Judaism in that the real focus of the, the education you get from, you know, starting at three years old till the time you're 12 or 13 is like, "We gotta prepare you for the bar or bat mitzvah." So it means, you know, we spend a bunch of time kind of learning Hebrew in the sense of learning prayers and reciting them and repeating them, and so that you're gonna get to a point where you can do your bat mitzvah or your bar mitzvah, but you don't actually try to learn the language.

Todd learned to recite the prayers, but he had no idea what they meant, and it felt at the time like the Jewish environment he was raised in was also uninterested in helping him discover what those prayers might have to do with his life he was actually living, the frustration, the longing, the difficulty of being himself.

Religion was for community, not for moral depth.

Yeah, I'd say my dad, you know, had a lot of deep love between us, but certainly in dealing with any type of internal problems or crisis, it never, I think, would've occurred to him or to sort of say like, "Let's talk about how Judaism can, can help us here." That was just not a thing.

[gentle music]