The Basics of
Living An Orthodox Life
by: Reb Yosef
I have decided to begin
writing something for Jewish Celebrations for those people who want to
learn more about Orthodox Judaism. The idea is to stick to the basics and
not wander too far a field with the nitty-gritty.
To begin, one of the great joys of being Orthodox is Friday night Sabbath
dinners. Sabbath is also called Shabbos (a Yiddish or Ashkenazic
pronunciation) or Shabbat (an Israeli or Sephardic pronunciation). One of
the things that makes the Shabbos table so joyful is the company of
friends, newcomers to the community, or people who are interested in
learning. There is a story that I tell frequently about how my wife and I
met.
About eight years ago, I was beginning the process of learning to live as
an Orthodox Jew. I had lots of books and was reading a great deal.
Unfortunately, there was something missing from the books and that was the
human side. The book learning described the practices but seemed to miss
on the how-to, reason why, and what it means to be.
Feeling frustrated at not being able to "get it," and being a member of
AOL at that time, I logged on, went into a Jewish chat room known as
Jewish Singles - the only one I knew about, and asked, "Is there anyone
here who is Orthodox?" A person with the handle of SR36 responded, "I'm
Orthodox, how can I help you?" Seeing the name SR, I figured this was a
gentleman who was either 36 or born in 1936 and was a "senior" as opposed
to a "junior."
I explained my dilemma and asked if SR wouldn't mind answering questions
for me. I do not recall what was bugging me at that particular instant but
whatever it was SR was most helpful and continued to be, answering
questions about the daily experiences of what it means to be Jewish and
Orthodox. About two weeks into our conversations, I discovered that SR
stood for Sarah Rosenberg and went "whoops." Okay, I guess that means we
leave certain topics alone. There were many times when Sarah would say, "I
don't know that I am the most qualified to answer your questions because I
don't necessarily go along with everything you are learning." This was
perhaps the most helpful thing of all to me - to find out that there are
basics to being Orthodox but that one person is no more or less Orthodox
than another. As the great sage Hillel said when asked to explain the
entire Torah, "What you find hateful, do not do unto another. The rest is
commentary." And it is - that is the essence of what it means to live as
an Orthodox Jew.
Lesson Number Two of the Basics of living Orthodox is, "Take it one step
at a time." No, this wasn't one of Sarah's lessons. This came from a man
named Steve Laine who shared a beautiful Yiddish saying that translates
to, "What comes like the wind, goes like the wind." That is just a more
poetic way of saying, take it one step at a time.
Lesson Number Three comes from, of all things, Alcoholics Anonymous. It is
a simple phrase, "Principles Before Personalities." Once a person enters
the world of Orthodox Judaism, she or he discovers that we are just people
- some good, some not so good. If we attempt to judge and rank Judaism
based on members, we will end up sorely disappointed. Orthodox Judaism
isn't about other people, it is about ourselves and the way we choose to
live; how we see the Torah, which encompasses the commandments given by
God to the Jewish people. None of us gets it completely right so the idea
is to do the best we can and to continually strive to do a little better.
It's an ongoing journey.
It will be a great help if those who are reading this can send me
questions. What would you like to know about? What do you find confusing?
As it stands right now, you will only hear about the things that I found
confusing and I hardly represent much of a spectrum.
Email your questions or comments to
RebYosef@mazornet.com
