by George Gazarek
These are the days of awe. Have you ever found yourself in awe? It usually happens unexpectedly. A child’s smile, a beautiful sunset, a setting of flowers, it grabs your attention and astonishes your senses. I had such a moment a few weeks ago on one of my early morning walks. I pass a number of wooded areas each day and this particular morning, I looked up at the trees and I just stopped in my tracks. There before me was the most beautiful tree. I don’t know trees very well, it might have been an ash, an elm or maybe even a sycamore.
As I gazed at that tree, I could picture this little tiny seed hidden under the soil. It’s drawing nutrients from the soil and moisture from the rain. Just at the right moment, it breaks through the shell and starts to grow. It grows down seeking nutrients and moisture and it grows up in search of sunlight. As it expands its roots, it grows taller and taller until, like this tree, its seventy or eighty feet tall. What a miracle.
There’s a sycamore in Montgomery County that’s 137 feet tall and one in Frederick County that’s 139 feet tall. Some of you may know about Maryland’s Wye Oak in the village of Wye Mills in Talbot County. It was only 96 feet tall and was killed by a thunderstorm in 2002. Its claim to fame was that its seed began its growth in the 1500’s. It lived to be over four hundred years old.
A few years later, in the early 1940’s, I was born into a Catholic family. My dad was an old fashioned disciplinarian. You never questioned him, you just did what you were told. I went to Catholic elementary school where you never questioned the nuns, you just believed what they told you. After high school, I joined the Marine Corps where you never questioned your superiors, you just did what you were told.
After I got out of the Marine Corps, I fell away from the church and became an agnostic. For thirty years, I was intellectually comfortable with my beliefs , or non-beliefs, but always felt something inside me was missing. Then, one Saturday evening in December of 1999, I had gone out to dinner with my wife and son. We had shared a nice bottle of wine and decided to go over to Barnes and Noble for a White Chocolate Mocha Grande. I like to browse the shelves for books I know nothing about. That’s when I stumbled upon this book, The Idiots Guide to Jewish History and Culture.
This book, complete with highlights titled Yenta’s Little Secrets and Listen to Your Bubbe, awakened my soul like it had never been before. The history, the culture, the relationship with God was all I had been looking for. Within days I had gone through the books 406 pages and found it to be extremely intriguing. I had always believed that if you were a Jew, you were born a Jew. But right there on page 5 in the discussion of “Who is a Jew?”, I discovered that anyone could choose to become a Jew and convert to Judaism. I then read Maurice Lamm’s “Becoming a Jew” and Herman Wouk’s’ “This is my God”. By that point I had read enough to know I wanted to become a Jew.
I met with a Rabbi and at his suggestion, signed up for the Introduction to Judaism fourteen week course. I started to visit different temples for Friday night or Saturday morning services until I found one that I felt comfortable with. At Beth David, a small conservative temple of 250 families, I started studying with the Rabbi discussing his list of 100 questions. On May 20th, 2001, I immersed myself in the mikvah and came out Daniel Ari ben Abraham. A few years later I moved to Temple B’rith Kodesh, a Reform temple of 1,200 families. I was Vice President of the Brotherhood, Chair of the Israel Committee and a member of the Religious Practices Committee and the Board of Directors.
I became good friends with Kurt and Ruth at the temple. They were in their 80’s at the time and they hosted an annual Pesach Seder at a large hotel where Rose and I got to meet their three grown daughters and their families. Kurt had told me that Ruth was a survivor of Auschwitz and that she was never able to discuss her experience there with their daughters. One Shabbat morning, I was sitting near the aisle before services feeling very pious in my long conservative tallis when I looked up and saw Ruth standing next to me. I rose to my feet and gave her a kiss on the cheek. It was then that she stared deep into my eyes and asked, “Why would anyone in their right mind want to be a Jew?” And then she turned and walked away.
I’ve thought about Ruth’s question many times over the years and while I have way too much respect for Ruth and those like her that I would never challenge her thoughts and beliefs, I would like to describe the Judaism that I have come to know over the last fourteen years. You see, I believe the real question is, why would anyone in their right mind not want to be a Jew.
I can’t possibly list all the reasons why I decided to become a Jew but I can tell you exactly what the five gems in the Idiot’s Guide to Jewish History and Culture were that lit my soul on fire. The first was that Jews don’t believe in definitive answers. “Is she beautiful? Well, she’s not ugly. But who’s right? You’re both right.” After being raised to accept what’s told to you and not to question anything, I was excited to learn that Jews love to argue, to analyze, and to see three sides to every question. I’d say, sometimes this process gets messy, but then you might disagree with me.
The second jewel was the grounding in ethical behavior and a relentless pursuit of justice. Not just ethical behavior within the Jewish community but almost more important, to the stranger as well. The third gem, Tikun Olam, literally repairing the world, is a major concept of Judaism placing responsibility upon us all for improving and perfecting the world in partnership with God.
The fourth gem is the Jewish pursuit of knowledge. “Jews are smart because they have been raised in a tradition that treasures education above everything else, that considers study the highest obligation of mankind, and that identifies the intellect as that part of us created in the image of God.” Albert Einstein summed it up when he said, “The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence–these are the features of Jewish tradition that make me thank my stars that I belong to it.”
The final gem was when I learned that most Jews have a special relationship with God. To the Jew, God is not some distant figure out in space somewhere but a constant companion that is with you every day throughout your life. The God of the Jews is said to be the God of all people. All people are created equal in the eyes of God and all people have the opportunity to share in the world to come. This, in the guide book for idiots, was the God I had been searching for. This was the religion and value system I could only imagine.
While those five gems got me started, I’ve discovered so many more treasures within the Jewish way. The gift of Torah, turning and turning, never appearing the same. The gift of Shabbat, with it’s beautiful experiences of true rest. At my first temple, there was something called an “oneg” or “kiddush”. The formal part included a blessing over the wine and a blessing over the challah. The informal part was enjoying the assorted pastries, salads, and Gefilte Fish while socializing among the congregants. There were three things that made the TBD kiddush special; the optional schnapps table, the Rabbi’s cholent, and the warmth of the congregants. Some of the older men of the temple preferred something a little stronger than the Manischewitz wine so they had arranged to have a small table set up in one corner with a bottle of bourbon and a few glasses. I quickly gravitated to this group and became a weekly member. Many months later when I was to become the president of the Men’s Club, I would arrange for the financing of these bottles through the Men’s Club treasury.
There is an old Yiddish word “haimish” which means having qualities associated with a homelike atmosphere; simple, warm, relaxed, cozy, unpretentious, etc. The TBD congregation was the poster child for “haimish”. At my very first TBD kiddush I met Ida, a very lovely woman who was to become my adopted Jewish mother. Ida loved to talk and was always bubbling over with excitement and joy. She took me under her wing and guided me through the real world version of what I was learning in my books and classes.
Jews have been at the forefront in the battle for civil rights, women’s rights and equal rights for the LBGT community. Jews care about their planet, they care about their community and they care about each other. I’m proud to call myself a Jew. I had this ring made by a jeweler in Jerusalem. Every morning when I put it on, I read it’s inscription, “I choose to be a Jew”. But, in a free America, we are all Jews by choice.
So I invite you to make a choice. A choice to join me in celebrating our Judaism together. I invite you to join us on September 21st as we celebrate Sukkot. and on October 12th as we celebrate Nathan’s Bar Mitzvah. I invite you to join us on October 20th at Gilbert Run Park as we celebrate the Southern Maryland Jewish Community with four other Jewish congregations. I invite you to join Pam Green with the Women’s Group in their planned activities and of course I invite you to join me along with the Men of CSS at our monthly dinners and events. But most important of all, I invite you to join us on Friday nights as we celebrate Shabbat. We’ve got some new service leaders, a lot of new members, and who knows, some night I might bring some Gefilte Fish.
We are all like that giant sycamore, reaching down deep into our heritage for strength and guidance, and reaching out to our community for support and energy to grow. To grow as Jews in that sacred community we call, Sha’are Shalom.
Shana Tovah!