Doing Judaism “Right”

Dear BMC Family, 

B’nai Mitzvah Campaign is in a unique position in the Jewish world. We work closely with Jewish families from a wide variety of backgrounds for a key period in a young Jewish person’s life. We learn (excitedly so!) with students who have never read a word of Hebrew, to self-prescribed young scholars deepening their study with a synagogue curriculum.

We’re often asked for our position on how to navigate the diverse denominational and political terrain of the Jewish world? Where we might find examples for how to do Judaism ‘right’? If you said the Torah, you might just be correct. (You are.) This week’s portion in particular.

We begin the book of Bamidbar, often known as Numbers. The first portion is also called Bamidbar, meaning ‘in the desert’. We learn of the way that the Israelites arrange themselves in encampments around the Mishkan (earthly dwelling place of Hashem). On the surface this seems to point to a military strategy as they headed through the desert. Interestingly, the Torah says to do so, with “each person under his standard with the banners of his family.” Chassidic text Beit Aharon, later quoted in the modern Itturei Torah, continues:

“Every Jew must know and think that they are unique in the world, and there was never anyone exactly like them–if there were someone like them (before), there would have been no need for you to come into the world. Every single person is someone new in the world, and it is their duty to improve all her ways, until all of Israel has attained perfection.”

Here we can see fully juxtaposed the commitment we have to our Jewish community, with the requirement for us to discover our personal relationship to Judaism. The two flow into one another, yin and yang if you will.

So maybe the question isn’t about how to “do Judaism right”, but how we - and how you - want to discover and engage with it, and go from there.

Food for thought: Rabbi Neil J. Loevinger (of our time) elaborates, “Judaism is not “one size fits all!” One person may become zealously observant of ritual practices, another person may devote all her energy to to Judaism’s vision of social justice, a third may find that studying sacred texts is the proper “flag” for her living Judaism.

Experience it: Discuss with your family how you feel about your Judaism. How do you think about your Judaism? Where have you as parents come from? What would you like to explore within Judaism? How might you go about doing so individually and as a family?

Continuing to wish you safety and health, and sending a רְפוּאָה שְׁלֵמָה (r’fuah shlema, full recovery) to anyone currently in need.

For those in our community who have experienced loss at this time, 

המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים

Hamakom yenakhem etekhem betokh shaar avelay tziyon viyrushalayim.

May Hashem comfort you among the rest of the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Shabbat Shalom, 

BMC Team