And now a quick break for idealism--

So, I was originally going to make a post diving into what I've been doing with the synagogue here over the last few weeks, but then I got dragged into watching the videos from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Youth Gathering, which is happening right now in New Orleans. I'm gonna get back to all my Jewish learnin', but for now I just want to talk about this conference.

I am SO EXCITED to see what's happening at the Youth Gathering, and what's going on with the next generation of the Church. They've had speakers like the always-wonderful Nadia Bolz-Weber, and this guy, Shane Claiborne, who I've never heard of before, who sounds like an old-timey tent revival preacher but who looks like a dirty hippie, and who walks the walk.

"I went up to one of those bishops afterwards and I said 'bishop, I gotta tell ya, this is so powerful and I had no idea that there were so many Christians in Iraq.' That bishop was gentle with me, but this is what he said, 'son, this is where Christianity started.' He said, 'you didn't invent Christianity in America, you just domesticated it.'"

And that's exactly how I feel about so much of the Christianity I've experienced in my life; it's domesticated. But there have always been people around to remind us, in the words of C. S. Lewis, that Aslan is not a tame lion. Martin Luther reminded us that God can't be domesticated into an economic system where forgiveness can be bought, and Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that God can't be domesticated and reformed in the image of our own prejudices for the sake of upholding hate, and what I see in the eyes of these Christian kids today is hope that God will be set free again among us and within us.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Lutheran church. I love the hymns, I love the order of service, I love many of the ways we do things. I love that we have a history, and if I've learned nothing else from my study of all things Jewish, it's that a common history helps to bind community together when we disagree about things like which hymn book to use.

But I also believe that, as my friend Emmy says, we need to start doing church differently, and reforming the image of what it means to be a Christian in this world. And I can see the beginnings of this in people like Nadia and Shane, and in the enthusiasm of the kids at the Youth Gathering. One of the things Shane reminded me of in this video was a song we used to sing at camp that I'd totally forgotten about, but want to bring back in a big way:

"And they will know we are Christians by our love."

Learnin' About The Jews

Well, as usual, it's been a while since I posted! And instead of going all retroactive, I'm just gonna jump right in where I am right now.

I've been going to classes at Knesset Israel, which is the synagogue here in Pittsfield, where I'm staying for the summer. They're hour-and-a-half classes once per week, and the series is called "An Introduction to Judaism," or, as Ari calls it "Jew Class 101." So far I've only been able to sit in for two weeks, both of which focused on prayer; the first on prayer as a concept in Judaism and the second on the Conservative prayer book and it's use at this particular synagogue.

I've been interested in Judaism since I knew what it was, which, living in Minnesota, probably the most homogeneously Lutheran place in the country, wasn't until I was about 10 and saw "The Prince of Egypt." There were a couple of songs with bits sung in Hebrew, and I couldn't get over what a beautiful language it was. Flash forward to last year, and I had a total of two Jewish friends, both of whom were at college and somewhat disconnected from their family and their faith, but who still answered many of my questions. Then, about six months ago, I met Ari, and I promptly flooded her with questions about everything, which she graciously answered.

I'm fascinated by the similarities and differences in different religious paths, and especially the commonalities shared by the "people of the book;" Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The more I learn about Christianity and the state of the world during the formation of the early church, the more sure I am that one can't fully understand Christianity without understanding, at least in part, Jewish faith, life, and teachings. And it's with that intention that I'm soaking up as much as I can about all things Jewish while I'm here, in a place with a thriving Jewish community.

The first thing I learned was that, like in Christianity, there are several distinct branches of Judaism with different teachings about different issues, and with somewhat different histories. Just as Luther broke from the Catholic church during the reformation, and the tree began branching out from there, Judaism split during the 19th century in Europe into four separate branches; Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist. I won't get into these branches too much, except to say that it was explained to me this way; that Orthodox Jews are the most conservative and adhere most strictly to biblical law, Conservative Jews hold to most of the same teachings, but take everything much less literally (to me, Conservative Jews are to Orthodox Jews as Lutherans are to Catholics), and Reform Jews differ from the first two in that they don't believe Jewish laws taken from the bible to be binding, but they still retain the same values and ethics. I honestly can't say much about Reconstructionist Jews, because I don't know much about them, except that they seem to be more concerned with the preservation of Jewish heritage and culture than religion itself.

Knesset Israel, where I've been taking classes, is a Conservative synagogue, and everyone who's been nice enough to put up with my incessant questioning has made sure that I know that they can only answer for themselves, and to some extent for their synagogue, and for their branch of Judaism, and just as if I asked a Catholic and a Lutheran to explain the Eucharist, there will be different answers if I ask an Orthodox Jew and a Conservative Jew to explain the origin of the Torah.

So anyway, this has been an introduction to my introduction, and I hope to write another post soon about the two classes I've sat in on, and the Hebrew classes I start tomorrow! I've been learning Hebrew on my own for about two months now, but I'm still not really past learning the alphabet (or aleph-bet, as it's called in Hebrew!). Wish me luck, and I'll report back soon!