Our friends from Argentina, Leandro Katz and MatÃas Duek sent in the following contribution:
The High Holidays are coming and we have our opportunity to evaluate ourselves. What you think and what you say show how connected you are to the religion.
Take this test and read your results.
1) Your aunt who lives far from your house offers her house for the Rosh Hashana dinner. What do you do?
A) You say: “I don’t travel during Rosh Hashana”.
B) You say: “Why don’t you come home?”
C) You go on foot, it takes you 2 hours and then you go back home by taxi.
2) You are in the Synagogue and the Rabbi starts to blow the Shofar. What do you think?
A) Your senses sharpen and you are 100% connected.
B) Although you don’t know what you have to do, you relax and try to feel the Shofar sound.
C) You think: Gee! How long can he hold his breath?
3) At the Rosh Hashana dinner, your cousin starts to talk about sports. What do you do?
A) You say: “This is not a subject to discuss tonight”.
B) You use sports as a metaphor to share Torah words.
C) You join the conversation: “People say that Pete Sampras’s grandfather was a Jew.”
4) It’s 10 minutes before the end of Yom Kippur. What do you think?
A) I hope that in 10 minutes I will be sealed with a year of Torah and Mitzvot.
B) You try to take advantage of the last minutes but you get nervous when the cantor makes the prayer longer.
C) Yummy, pizza…
5) You are in the synagogue on Simchat Torah and everybody is dancing with the Torah. What do you think?
A) Clapping, maybe. Dancing, no way.
B) If my friends saw me dancing with the Rabbi…
C) Everything is cool, but the Torah is really heavy.
If most of your answers are (a)s:
You are on the correct path, but you need to realize that, sometimes, the best answer is a smile. You can share moments with your friends even if they are not on the same path. You still have hard work, but you will certainly find the necessary tools.
If most of your answers are (b)s:
You know where you came from and where you are going. You want to be part of both worlds. You realize that your task is hard and that happiness is the key to all yours doors.
If most answers are (c)s:
You are willing to participate and have kind feelings. Now you need to understand what you are doing. You internalized the concept “Naaseh be Nishma” (first do and then listen) this is the moment to pass to “Nishma” (listen).
Piece of advice: download torah shiurim to your MP3 player.
Shanah Tovah!
I’d like to flesh out these scenarios, if I may.
1) Your aunt who lives far from your house offers her house for the Rosh Hashana dinner. She was exceedingly kind to you when you were growing up; now she is living alone, her children are all assimilated, and she will die soon. What do you do?
A) You say: “I don’t travel during Rosh Hashanaâ€.
2) You are in the Synagogue and the Rabbi starts to blow the Shofar. As usual, half-way into the second tekiah, he cannot keep it up but must keep repeating his efforts, making strange bleating and squealing noises. Because he blames the shofar and not himself, he has ten shofars before him, and keeps switching from one to the other. What do you think?
A) Your senses sharpen and you are 100% connected.
3) At the Rosh Hashana dinner, your cousin starts to talk about sports. You haven’t seen this totally non-religious cousin for ten years when he called you up and said that he is dating a girl named Jennifer Wellington and is reading Unitarian literature, but suddenly felt the need to learn more about Judaism. What do you do?
A) You say: “This is not a subject to discuss tonightâ€.
4) It’s 10 minutes before the end of Yom Kippur. You are suffering from a dramatic drop in blood sugar, and you know that unless you eat something within 12 minutes, you will be confined to your bed for a day, making it necessary for your spouse to take over many of your responsibilities with the house and children, not to mention that you will miss another day of work and risk serious problems with your supervisor, and if you get demoted or fired then you will not be able to make the payments on the house. What do you think?
A) I hope that in 10 minutes I will be sealed with a year of Torah and Mitzvot.
5) You are in the synagogue on Simchat Torah and everybody is dancing with the Torah. You are 85 years old, your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are with you, and you don’t want to admit to anyone that your heart has been bothering you lately. What do you think?
C) Everything is cool, but the Torah is really heavy.