like gold to me

I've been fascinated with Judaism for years. In my younger life I was a little jealous of my Jewish friends. They seemed to have an absolute identity in their religion and culture. They even had summer camps they went to and youth groups and words I didn't understand. I came from Christian community with a European family heritage. I had no distinct claim to any culture and in this I always felt a little ungrounded. There ca be such freedom in the untethered aspect of being so bland, but somewhere in me I wanted a mark that placed me in the hands of a community that shared my sense of the world. Greener is the pasture on the other side of the fence. I don't like being pigeon-holed or categorized so an absolute identity would probably not have worn well with me anyway, but it didn't stop my wanting. And so, from the outside, a part of me wished for a Jewish history.

Friday night I indulged a little in this wish by going to services at Congregation Beth Ahaba. I was a little nervous in going. Just like with Buddhism, I thought I'd walk into the services and have an abandoned feeling- like I'd want to turn around and scream to the sky, "Where have I landed?" Turns out, I do believe Judaism beget Christianity and thereby they look a little bit alike. Other than the Hebrew, it felt old hat and that Jewish back beat in the music had me tapping right along.

Congregation Beth Ahaba is a reformed Jewish Temple and from what my friends have told me, as "laid back as you can get." I liked the feel of place. It looked like a church and services ran like a church service. The only distinct difference apart from all the Hebrew was the absence of a "sermon." There was a guest speaker, Fay Lohr, CEO of the Central Virginia Food Bank, who spoke about giving time and food to her charity. She highlighted the people who need the food she oversees and the great amount of help that the members of the Synagogue have given. The theme of charity was a big one for me this week.

I also went to the Buddhist Sangha for a talk by a Zen teacher who spoke about the 6 prajna paramitas which are essentially virtues. He hit on three the night that I saw him, but the one that spoke the most to me was generosity and how our acts of giving should be without the want of recognition or a concern for what is done with the gift. How similar this is to what I've envisioned Jesus doing, giving simply for the act of giving. And then to tie up the week with Judaism talking about giving just solidified for me that we are all the same.

I want to get at the heart of what makes people good. I believe that religion has a great deal to do with our moral compasses and I want to know why or if we need religion to get to a place of goodness and right action. If all religions, at their core, speak and require generosity and compassion then isn't this just an inherit human quest that our intellectual minds have formed into a structure with rules and boundaries? Do truly need all that diction? It's a big question and one I'm not sure I'll ever get to answer, but the quest has been fun. I love the conversations I'm having. I like seeing the similarity we all share in the quest for understanding our purposes in humanity. And it's good to see that so far in our various religious interpretations the golden rule does shine.