Day of Atonement

You know, if it weren�t for the fact that many of the diarists whom I read are Jewish, I wouldn�t even know that it was Yom Kippur, the holiest of holy days in the Jewish calendar. This is how far I have lapsed from the religion of my youth, not that I was raised religiously at all. The very first time I ever went to a Yom Kippur service was when I was 15 or 16 and my first boyfriend dragged me to a reform synagogue. I was bored to tears.

My dad came from an orthodox background, and he kicked over the traces as soon as he was able. My mother, on the other hand, was raised very secularly. Her father was born in Russia, and boys were sent to cheder very early. They were instructed in tanach, which is the first five books of the Bible, or Pentateuch, and of course the very first thing he learned was �In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.” My grandfather asked his grandfather in all innocence, �If God created the Heaven and the Earth, then who created God?� and his grandfather, enraged, answered, �A Jew does not ask that kind of question!� My grandfather, at that point, decided that maybe being Jewish wasn�t such a great idea if he wasn�t allowed to ask questions. When my mother came home from school one day, all excited about Christmas trees, my grandparents decided it was probably time to begin her Jewish education.

So you see, apart from some pretty strong traditions, like the Passover seder and lighting the menorah for Hannukah, I didn�t really get too much in the way of a religious upbringing. I even went to a Hebrew day school but, unlike the school across the street where my best friend zitagsd went and which my mother nicknamed �the Jewish Catholics� (after grade 3 boys and girls were segregated, girls wore sleeves below their elbows and skirts below their knees), it was run by the labour-Zionist movement and we learned tanach as a literary exercise. Once a week, a little Yemenite man named Mr. Mag0ri used to come in and teach us the standard synagogue prayers, just so that should we find ourselves in a shul, we would be able to keep up with the rest of the congregation.

When I started going to public school in junior high, being a largely Jewish demographic, the school was practically empty during the high holy days. Most kids went off to synagogue with their parents. I went to the mall. I guess it was inevitable that I would marry someone who wasn�t Jewish. I couldn�t be bothered keeping kosher or shabat. I mean, when I don�t believe in it, why should I do it? It�s meant that my kids haven�t got that much yiddishkeit as a result, something I regret, but it would have been hard anyway, seeing as how we live in an area where the nearest synagogue is an hour�s drive away in St. J0hnsbury, VT. They don�t seem to be any the worse for wear for it.

So, having said all that, I would like to wish all my Jewish readers a gut yontif, a sweet year and an easy fast (I realize it�s over now), and I would like to wish all my non-Jewish readers exactly the same thing.

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