The Laundromat and the Drunk Antisemite
23 min view
Do some people become religious to escape life rather than face it? And what would you do if your child told you they no longer believed in God?
00:00:12 - Introduction
00:00:31 - Do people use religion to escape life?
00:01:31 - What if your child stopped believing in God?
00:03:12 - What's the difference between Halacha and Hashkafa?
00:06:22 - Does God care if you change your customs?
00:08:30 - The key to good communication
00:12:02 - Can staying secular be healthier than becoming religious the wrong way?
00:13:50 - Learning to submit vs thinking independently
00:16:51 - Why do people leave Judaism?
00:21:42 - Wrap-up
This was excellent, really, really good. I just wanted to comment on the Jewish kid interested in Buddhism. I hear what you're saying about the parents' lack of excitement with their Judaism but I have a different perspective. I believe it's because the boys yeshiva system is not teaching Judaism. They're teaching Gemara, which is awesome, but it's not Judaism. The boys are taught almost nothing about Chumash, Navi, Yomim Tovim Jewish history, history of Gedolim, Halacha, etc., etc.
There is a school in Lakewood, NJ, where a principal, Mrs. C.R. Twerski, has revolutionized Jewish girls education. Every subject is taught with incredible depth, brilliance and creativity. You can't imagine what these girls know, from Primary through 8th grade, on every single topic in Judaism.
And they don't even have to study! The teachers teach with constant chazara, review, with songs, chants, etc.
What the girls know about Baur Tefila! Parsha! Yomim Tovim! Hilchos Shabbos! Brachos! It's absolutely incredible! And tons of fun activities! With stunning booklets! Projects! You can't imagine!
Klal Yisrael is waiting for the boys yeshivas (and girls schools!) to stop pouring more and more money into hiring people for "curriculum development" and instead make one phone call to Bnos Yaakov in Lakewood, buy the entire curriculum, Hebrew and English, and give it out to every boys school. And the Rabbeim must do it. Period.
Anyone out there who wants to be our generation's Sara Schenirer? Rav Levin? Rav Yehoshua Ben Chalafta?
That would also solve the seemingly unsolvable problem of boys behavioral difficulties. Most of them are bored stiff. Just sayin.
I feel like everyone is so intimidated by the girls curriculum. Mrs. Twerski's curriculum is incredibly organized and amazingly teachable. It's so well organized it needs very little prep for the teacher!
And then there's other things that have to be copied. The Primary girls classroom filled with tons of beautiful, expensive toys. The Primary boys class not. Why? Are we not paying tuition for our boys?
I suggest every rebbe, principal, boys English teacher and yeshiva donor take a trip to Bnos Yaakov, watch a class, see all the workbooks and ask yourself the question: Why not for the boys? And copy every single thing.
Just sayin.
Last point. The boys have plenty of time in the day. The girls buses arrive at 9:30 am and they're learning for 2 hours, 10-12. The boys, much, much, more. Plenty of time for hearing scary Holocaust stories inappropriate for the age, raffles that 99% of the class loses, etc.
Maybe TU wants to cancel next year's retreat and buy and implement the above mentioned curriculum instead?
I once read a column by a male educator. He said a boy told his father he doesn't want to wear tzitzes. Why should he wear tzitzes? This educator wrote that the answer is that tzitzes is the tzura of a Yid. That's actually not the answer. If that were so, Hashem could have just presented a color copy of a Yid at Har Sinai instead of teaching the Torah to Moshe for 40 days on Har Sinai.
Artscroll has an entire book about tzitzes. Learn the book and teach it and chazer it. And make it fun, exciting, colorful, happy, filled with singing, stunning bulletin boards and positivity. I promise the boys will want to wear tzitzes. Just sayin.
Of course Gemara is Judaism. Every word is incredibly holy beyond description. I meant it's not everything.
I am an 80 year-old American woman Reconstructionist Rabbi, former clinical social worker and couples therapist, and I loved this video, 100%.
I love hearing your embrace of diversity within Judaism! This is how I also feel about the different ways of expressing Jewishness.
WONDERFUL!