My home was not deeply religious growing up, but we did delight in the holidays and the cultural aspects of being Jewish. I thought of myself as a cultural Jew, but not a religious one. And then, four years ago, we joined Temple Isaiah. I began to witness joy all around me, joy of being part of a loving community, of commitment to Tikkun Olam, of laughter, and of connection.
When I saw an announcement for the Adult B’nai Mitzvah class in the Temple newsletter last summer, it piqued my curiosity. Maybe, I thought, it was time to discover where all of this joy of and commitment to Judaism derives from. I took a leap of faith and enrolled.
What began as a whim, a curiosity, became the most meaningful, emotional, educational, and spiritual journey of my life. We learned about the beginnings of Judaism. We learned how the words and practices evolved and were passed from 5784 BCE to today. We learned about the books that I knew the names of, but never knew which were which and why? We studied the Torah, the Prophets, the Mishnah, the Talmud, the Gemara, and ancient and modern commentary. It’s clearer now, but there is so much more to learn. We sat with Rabbis Axler, Weiss, Plotkin, and Rachel Petroff Kessler twice monthly, and learned together. One-on-one time with each one of these teachers was a gift. We learned from them and from each other. There were questions, answers, and lots of laughter.
The culmination of this journey ended in reading the ancient words of Torah. This was a moment where I connected to my ancestors and all the Jewish people around the world. It was a genuinely thrilling experience.
When we began our learning, we gathered mostly as acquaintances. When we joined together on the bimah on June 15, we gathered as friends who had taken a momentous journey together with our teachers, that culminated in our commitment to our people, to our God, and to Judaism.
Linda Wien Murray
(Front row, left–right: Rachel Petroff Kessler, Renee Mankoff, Amy Levitt, Barbara Eldridge, Fern Reitman, Linda Markowitz, Rabbi Daniel Plotkin. Back row, left–right: Rabbi Amanda K. Weiss, Ben Levitt, Matthew Diamond, Ellen Strichartz, Linda Murray, Rabbi Craig Axler)
