Culture Change

(A Report)

About a year ago, Susan and I attended a conference of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) in Dallas.
In the course of various seminars I heard about a program, started by a fellow Rabbi, of meeting with b'nei mitzvah and their families on an individual basis about two years before their simcha. The speaker who shared this information said that the results were extremely positive.
It occurred to me that meeting on a regular basis and over an extended period of time with bar mitzvah families might be an idea worth trying. So when I returned to St. Louis, I made the proposal to the families who might participate.
An initial issue was curriculum. What would we do with the scheduled half hour? My sense was to address a long-time concern of mine: the fact that it appears that the vast majority of liberal jews have little to no familiarity with the classic texts of Judaism - Mishna, Talmud, Midrashim, the Codes - not even our own Scriptures. (I've said ironically that, for many, it seems that Judaism is the platform of the Democratic Party!)
While the project was still in an experimental stage I decided to “bite the bullet.” I ordered copies of the Jewish Publication Society TaNaCh (Bible) and gave it as a gift to each student at our first meeting. While the gift was free, there was a string attached! I asked each student to commit to reading one chapter a day in English and to write down any questions they might have. The next time we met, they could share the questions and I would try to answer them as best I could.
While it would be unrealistic to say that everyone was able to follow through with this requirement, I'd like to share some of the “success” stories. The Bible is a pretty formidable document, not only in content, but also in sheer volume! The book I presented the children runs 2,023 pages of pretty small type. The good news is that each chapter is quite brief - maybe two pages long on the average. Reading one chapter a day becomes something quite manageable and I'm frankly impressed with the progress so many have shown.
In some cases the children chose to study by themselves; in others a parent - or both parents - have joined in and members of the group take turns reading to the others. Many of the questions have been classic. For example who did Cain and Abel marry? How did people live for such a long time? Other questions have been about more arcane subjects dealing with ritual purity or the like.
The reviews are mixed. Sections with long lists of names and descendants or dealing with the construction of the Tabernacle don't have an immediate appeal to most. The language is adult and sometimes the subject matter deals with issues of sexuality. Inevitably the process is mind-stretching. At the same time, it affords families a chance to learn about subjects that look at reality in a profound way.
I'm hoping that the students and their families will also discover just how relaxing and stimulating it is, to spend time this way: making a connection to our tradition; adding depth to our life experiences; ultimately discovering the sacred dimension to Life and exploring what it means to have a relationship with God.
Ultimately it's a doorway to discover the roots of our faith - not based on speculation or popular opinion, but by actually engaging a Jewish text.
In taking the “long” view: while I realize that this experiment has been a qualified success, I still think how amazing it is that there are about a dozen families who are experiencing reading the TaNaCh first hand. Who knows what this might lead to!