We all have a Jewish journey. The details are always different. Here is mine.
I grew up in a Conservative home. I went to Hebrew school. I attended High Holiday services, though mostly I stood outside with my friends. Our Passover seder was quick. We didn’t keep kosher.
I was Jewish. I knew I was Jewish. But Judaism wasn’t a big part of my life.
A friend became religious. One Passover we went to his family’s house for a seder. The seder went on for hours. I learned a lot. Something opened.
For others that opening comes differently. October 7th was that moment for many Jews, a sudden awareness of what it means to be Jewish and what is at stake. However it happens, something shifts, and the journey begins.
Over the following years my fiancee and I visited my friend a number of times. Each visit taught us more about Jewish texts or observances. The practices and knowledge accumulated gradually until Judaism was a bigger part of our lives.
What kept us growing was learning and observance. Each fed the other. We studied prayer and Jewish practice in our shul, explored texts with others, and kept adding to what we did and what we knew.
Forty years later I am still on the journey. There have been periods of more growth and periods of less. That is how any long journey goes.
Your journey will be different than mine. But wherever you are on it, a few things seem to hold true across very different Jewish lives.
If you are exploring, keep going. Reading about Jewish texts and practices, whether through books or reputable online resources, is a natural next step.
If you are in the middle of increasing your observance, you are probably in the hardest stretch of the journey. You are reorganizing your life and it is not always easy. Knowing that others have made that transition and found their footing can itself be encouraging.
If you grew up observant or have been observant for some time, the journey is yours too. The tradition is deep enough to spend a lifetime exploring. There is always a next step. The question is not whether you have arrived. It is what your next step looks like from where you are.
That is what we will keep exploring here together.
This post originally appeared here:
https://beyondbt.substack.com/p/my-jewish-journey-your-mileage-will
