A Common Purpose

Being Jewish is like totally awesome, know what I mean? Maybe not so let me try to explain.

Being an observant Jew can be really hard, it forces you to change everything about your life if you grew up secular like I did. It forces you to make all these changes and sacrifices but out of those restricts and rules, there comes such beauty. Case in point, last night I had an observant friend stay the night. He had an appointment downtown and this cut an hour off his commute so no problem right? That’s just what friends do for one another. But it doesn’t end there behind that is this whole other thing, this guy is a future doctor and I live right next to a hospital that he’s going to be interning in at soon. When my girlfriend heard about this, her first reaction was to him was so of course you can come over when you’re working and use the kitchen. The fact that we are all bound together with a common purpose and common set of ideals and ideas is what creates that connection so powerfully. If not for my kitchen, he’d have to pack lunches, eat cold food, etc. But with my kitchen he can just come over and have food, with no restrictions. Being observant means opening up your home to people from all over, because they need a kosher food stop, or because it Shabbat and they’ve traveled a long way and need a place, whatever the reason, it binds us all together.

I love that this brings me and an acquaintance closer together it makes us closer friends it forces us to get to know one another, it makes me stretch myself constantly. Another example; at the beginning of this week I got sick and everyone knew why? Because there was a wedding and I didn’t go. There are always public events going on and everyone always congregates and when you become part of that web people notice stuff a lot easier and they check up on you and ask if you need anything and go out of their way for you because if you have to go to the hospital then you’ll need food, we’ll keep you in our thoughts when we pray… I hope I’m conveying the frenetic nature of it all, because it’s so vibrate, so alive all the time.

Sometimes I hear from my non-observant friends and family and from them I always hear about the hardships I must endure or the rules I must follow and what a bore it must be and what cant things be simpler, etc and I understand that because I once felt that way to, but now? I can’t imagine my life without it. Can’t imagine my life without Shabbat without a time when no matter what I’m doing I take a break I put it out of my mind and just relax, eat food with friends, take a nap in the middle of the day because worrying is for tomorrow, thinking about all the work I have to do is for the next day and I can deal with it then.

There is such freedom and such love within all the rules and restrictions it binds Am Israel together as a nation, it’s beautiful and I love it and I could never imagine going back.

Shabbat Shalom