Smiley –
I joined this thread too late to add anything. But your OP is too good to allow to go unanswered.
Are you typical or atypical? I’d say both: typical, because you, like most intellegent teens have questions. Atypical, because you had the courage to ask.
Teens like yourself are not the problem.. they are the soloution! If more young adults asked questions, our yeshivos would not be able to be satisfied with the status quo.
I’ll just add this: not only is judiasm a religion of questions, but once you start asking, you’ll see that the answers were right there in front of you. 2 examples:
1) Ain k’Elokainu, ain k”Adonainu is followed by Mi k’Elokainu, mi k’Adonainu. Got questions? Good! We’ve got answers!
2) Rambam wrote Moreh Nevuchim, which has lots of questions and lots of answers. I was told, he really “wrote” it in reverse; he knew the “answers” (meaning, the fundamentals of emunah), and then set out to see what questions could be answered with these fundamentals.
Don’t let anything stop you Smileyface!