I went to Rodef Shalom yesterday... not sure whether it's appropriate for a gentile to refer to it as "temple" or not...
When we pulled up I saw men dressed in suits and women wearing big, fancy hats. I questioned whether I should go inside, seeing as we were all dressed in jeans. But we decided to proceed. When we walked in the door, we were greeted by a kind women who most likely knew we weren't Jewish. She escorted us inside (before hand she made Jon put on a yamika) and we sat down on what can be compared to a pew for Christians and for everyone else, essentially a wooden bench, but the most important things were a) the benches were padded and b) the immense feeling of happiness that washed over me, a comfort unlike any I've felt in several years-- in fact the last time I had this feeling, I was at church with Saira, we must have been 16 or so. Faith is important to me but not essential so I suppose that's why I rarely experience such moments. But as I sat there, watching these conservative Jewish chicks whisper and stare, Rabbi Gerson approached us and introduced himself. He welcomed us, and obviously also knew we weren't Jewish. But he had one of the most pure, nicest smiles I've ever seen. There was no judgment behind his eyes and he was inviting and gentle. I sat there, a bit nervous but mostly excited, and listened. A young girl around the age of 11 or 12 was speaking, reading from the Torah in a beautifully phonetic voice, turning the passages into song-like poems. She was speaking Hebrew I think. I don't know though. I'm very ignorant in regards to religion. Anyway, I couldn't help but be drawn into it, all of it, even when the Rabbi was speaking I was listening attentively, which is something I rarely did in church when I was Catholic.
I don't know what it is, but Judaism kind of appeals to me. Most of the people I've come to know who are Jewish have amazing qualities, extremes on the scale. Extreme intelligence, extreme kindness, so on and so forth. They usually have a pretty decent sense of humor, I've noticed, but for me, it seems like they have a special kind of charisma that only they can posses but again, that may be just me.
The conclusion I'm trying to draw is that just like any other religion, Judaism impacts an individual culturally and the morals and standings adopted from it-Judaism- naturally affects one's personality, choices, likes and dislikes, pretty much everything. They seem to me to be pretty motivated and self- disciplined. I mean all the ones I know are successful and smart. But maybe that's just me and maybe I've only been exposed to certain ones- I don't know, I'm not attempting to make any assertions or trying to stereotype. I'm just trying to show the admiration I have for the ones that I know and how I indirectly or even directly have a deep appreciation for the religion itself.
I came to a conclusion about all of it a while ago. According to Christianity, Jesus is really just God in human form. Jesus was Jewish if I'm not mistaken. So then it seems that the only logical conclusion is that God is Jewish or rather, wants us to be Jewish. But again, and I feel that I have to be overly clear about this because its such a sensitive topic and I don't want to offend anyone, but it's just my belief that Judaism is the more direct religion to God. Christianity is pretty much the worship of not only God, but the form of God as Jesus and the Spirit of God within each one of us. Right? Again, it just seems like Judaism is a direct approach to God, one that's more involved as far as the individual is concerned. For example I'm pretty sure you don't have to go to a Rabbi and confess your sins or whatever... well obviously because they don't believe in sins right? Or maybe they do but anyway the point is they don't have to go to a human being to talk to God, they can do it themselves. I think.
So anyway, I'm going to do some research and I might speak with Rabbi Gerson about the whole thing in an attempt to fully understand what its all about. Not to say I would convert or anything, but just like with Buddhism, I would like to at least have a basic understanding of it.
