Welp, I've been a member of the Buddhist temple, am attending things at the Jewish temple now, and of course we all know how Christians are big in getting up early, morning services, etc. I swear it's a plot they're all in it together, to make you have to be up before noon on a Sunday!
In the cast of the Jewish temple, Sunday's a regular day as the Sabbath is Friday night to Saturday night. But classes, like the one I went to yesterday, are often on Sunday and start at 10AM or sometimes even 9 I think.
There's just no winning here. Following any system of belief is going to involve getting up in the actual morning. Ugh!
More seriously, though, I realized something today, thinking about this. Buddhism, even the more "liberal" Pure Land Buddhism, is all about getting through this life and hopefully when you die you go to the Pure Land. Christianity is well-known for being all about just getting through this life, maybe even imposing suffering on oneself (Theravada Buddhism does this also) to better "cash in" when you die and presumably go to Heaven.
Judaism, for all the talk about Moschiach/Messiah and the "world to come", is concerned with the here-and-now. You create a little bit of heaven when you observe Shabbat, when you do good deeds, when you study the Torah. And these things are done together, with other people. Socialization is required.
In Buddhism, I got the feeling you're still on your own whether you merit going to the Pure Land. They're pretty social, but it still felt rather atomized. In Christianity and especially Protestant Christianity, it's hyper-individualistic. Everyone's really on their own. The US being a largely Protestant Christian nation, we have such delightful practices as kicking your kids out by age 18, spending your kids' college money on cruises, and the whole "Fuck you, I've got mine" American ethos. Because it's up to you and you alone whether you go to Heaven, suffering is good for you, this life is nothing compared to the afterlife, etc.
This is not to say there's not individualism in Judaism, there certainly is. But Judaism seems to have arrived over their thousands of years at the same questions and conclusions I have. The biggest one, the current saying, "We live in a society". One of the reasons I got interested in Judaism again is I reasoned that it's a religion of people who have been civilized, that is, living in cities with the modern idea of work, and money, and so on, all the modern stressors. And they've found a way to deal with it - the biggie being having a day off a week.
I've been loving my pale imitation of a Shabbos, staying off the damn computer and reading books - how I'd missed reading books. Not fussing around with cooking, eating rather nice food I've bought/prepared ahead of time.
I'd concluded years ago that if I were the average working slob in this horrible society and economy, the only way I'd stay sane would be to join a religion because then I'd have a rationale and gov't recognized right to my holidays and time off. For simple sanity reasons Catholicism would probably be best because it's a large group around here, plenty of churches, recognized holidays, and it's the least crazy branch of Christianity. Still crazy, just the least so.
There ain't no way I'm gonna be a Christian, but that was my thinking.
Judaism has weird holidays no one else understands, but it does have 'em, and they are gov't protected so as a working slob punching a time clock I'd be OK. And I'd always be up for working on Sundays and Christmas day and so on.
Fortunately I have a very flexible schedule here as long as I get the work done and keep the numbers good.
If I make it to Israel, even in Tel Aviv, it's very easy to live Jewishly, as they say. Shabbos time off is the norm, all the holidays are the norm. Other than the current weather which includes rockets, I've been looking much more closely at the place and it's basically L.A. The latitude, the weather, etc. Like Hawaii it's an expensive place but not as expensive as here, and in a ton of ways it's better like they have real public transit.
At the class yesterday, we started off by standing up and saying a little blurb about ourselves, and I was last. I said "I'm Schroedinger's Jew" and elaborated, saying Lithuania being the black hole of information it is, and everyone concerned being dead, I may be halachically Jewish, or may not. I don't know. "So I'll have to make like Uncle Ben's Rice and be converted".
I think it was a pretty good blurb, but what I hadn't noticed was, on the other side of Mr. H- who I was next to, was the Rabbi Himself. I don't think I offended him or anyone, but that blurb covers most of what the phone call the Rabbit is supposed to make to me tomorrow. Maybe that's good, because now his mind is primed with very basically what I'm about and why I've been coming around.
As for DNA tests, I don't know what to think. I took that one in 2016 but I'm not sure how good a sample it was, or how developed the tech was 8 years ago. I'm going to take another one from another company and keep trying to sort out my genealogy because if it turns out I *am* actually halachically Jewish, it means my siblings are too and that's 5 of us for the price of one. I don't know how crazy things are going to get and it may be important information to know.
I wanted to get the packing all done before starting on my taxes, and that plus general depression and ennui meant ... I eventually got the packing done at almost midnight. Taxes tomorrow and I'll just be a day late I guess.
A funny thing though: The reason I was in such a hurry to buy candle holders and a Kiddush cup was, I thought the Passover thing I'm going to is this Tuesday. I got the rows on my calendar mixed up, it's next Tuesday.
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