Reply To: Are the Reform and Conservative Still Jewish?

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tzippi
Member

Minyan gal, a few years ago I heard the author of..can’t remember the name of the book, something like The Modern Jewish Mom’s Guide to Making Shabbat. It was a sweet book, and heartening, though skimpy on the Shabbat day. I asked her about it and she said, she and her family are a work in progress and hope to get there some day.

I’m bringing this up because just as there’s a whole dimension to Shabbos – the day – that is neglected in the non observant world (though there is attention paid to Friday night and havdalah) there is, similarly, so much to Jewish life (and a Jewish woman’s life) besides what you detail.

I’ll tell you a great story I just heard at a national women’s program from the Tiferes division of the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation (possibly still showing again in your area) about a group of merchants who met with the Chofetz Chaim. He told them, You’re coming to me for inspiration and are probably expecting me to tell you to take on something extra, an extra learning seder, etc. I won’t. My advice to you won’t involved any extra action on your part. But think: right now you spend most of your day at work, which is honorable, but not a mitzvah. There are so many holes in your life, the hours in which you’re not involved in active growth. Imagine if you could turn that into a mitzvah. If you start your day thinking, I am engaging in the honorable mitzvah of taking care of a child of the Creator [myself], or my family, or being able to help my community and Torah scholars. Then, everything becomes a mitzvah.

I’m not doing justice to the speaker’s delivery; she was awesome. But the point is, living Jewishly can be so enriching and I hope you get equal satisfaction from your life outside shul too.