cellio | answers, part 1

Aside from a connection with God, how else has your faith enriched your life?

It has helped me to focus on making myself a better person. There are lots of things that would seem to fit into the category of "enlightened self-interest" in how we deal with other people, but I wasn't doing many of them or particularly aware of some issues.

Take one example: we are commanded to judge others favorably, to look for the non-obvious favorable explanation for what appears to be bad behavior. Now we all know this at some level -- that there's usually an explanation for people's actions, and if you can just get into their headspaces and figure it out you'll all be better off. But just raising the topic in the religious context helped me to actually start doing it. I'm sure I have a long way to go yet, but I'm farther along than I was five years ago.

That's just one example. Another whole category is lashon hara, hurtful speech. (This is sometimes translated as slander, but incorrectly. Slander is a subcategory.) I'm more aware of my words than I used to be -- still too often after the fact rather than before but, again, I'm more aware, and at least sometimes I'm doing something about it before it's too late.

A third category is charity and compassion, an area where I think I've improved quite a bit in the last few years. My faith prompted me to think about it; I theoretically could have done this on my own, but I didn't.

Of course, one can do these things indepenedently of any command. I don't work on these specifially because God commanded it; it's more that I think God wants us to behave this way and, y'know, it turns out to be a good idea anyway.

Why the hell do people keep doing this? I mean, is it really all that cool?

The general meme-propegation reasons: we're lemmings, and sometimes people need inspiration for things to write about.

And, at least for me, one other reason. When I started this journal, I never imagined that I would attract readers who didn't already know me. Somehow I seem to have done so, however, and it makes me just a little more aware that I'm writing for an "audience" and not just for "a sometimes-close circle of friends". So while I write this journal for me, I'd like to at least try to be interesting for my readers. This is a risk-free way for people to ask me to write about topics they want to hear me write about.

Why do we see each other so rarely?

Excellent question, given that we live in the same city. You'd think we'd bump into each other more. Since it's not happening on a casual basis, I guess we'll just have to consciously do something about it. Want to do lunch?

What's your favorite period dance?

Rostiboli Gioioso. Ooh, flirty Italian partner dance! And really pretty music!

Why don't you go to services whenever a class of children are participating? I've noticed that trend in your journal.

Two reasons, one halachic and one practical.

Halachically, the person who leads services has to be over the age of bar/bat mitzvah. These class services start with fourth grade; bar/bat mitzvah is at 13. (Aside: in traditional Judaism it's 13 for boys and 12 for girls. Reform is egalitarian and made it 13 for both as a result.) So a nine-year-old leading services is as valid as a gentile doing so, and that makes me uncomfortable. Technically the evening service is different from the others in some ways, and maybe it's really ok, but it makes me twitch. And I think the bar/bat mitzvah should be something special, and this diminishes that.

Practically, there are logistical frustrations. Anyone who's tried to herd nine-year-olds in a formal setting can probably imagine what I'm talking about. It doesn't really result in an environment that's especially conducive to prayer, at least for me. And I don't start out already enthusiastic about kids (this might qualify as the understatement of the month...), so I'm less able to overlook these foibles than are, say, the parents in the congregation.

Coming up sometime after Shabbat: more on religion, a visit from Dr. Science, and assorted others. Keep 'em coming.