Saturday, March 24, 2007

Religious....to be or not to be ???

B"H

For whatever reason some people think that becoming or being religious means giving up all the pleasures in life. Only wearing black suits and hats, no more cheeseburgers and living in a religious ghetto. They only look at the negative side, see the amount of 613 Mitzwot and decide that this is just too much for them.

Becoming religious is usually a long process which can take many years. You should not decide to become religious at once, put a kipa your head and try to keep all the Mitzwot (today we are only able to keep about 70 from the 613 Mitzwot, as most of the others apply to the Cohanim and the Temple service).
If you rush you are in danger of getting depressed very soon, as I know very well from my own experience. You will not be Mrs or Mr Mea Shearim within a few days.
At a Yom Kippur class I learned from a rabbi that if you pick yourself 1 Mitzwa and keep it, you are already being considered orthodox. After keeping this particular Mitzwa you might choose doing another one after some time.

But do give it time and choose the right rabbi. Do not be upset about having bads days and not succeeding in anything. As Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught: "Tomorrow is a new day."
Concentrate on the positive side. After some time of learning and doing, many people start understanding the Mitzwot and their inner meanings.

Each of us has a different approach to Judaism. Some succeed very easily in becoming religious and for others it seems to take ages.
There are people who get closer to Judaism by learning Torah, others start with Talmud or Chassidut let alone Kabbalah. Everyone according to his neshama (soul).

It is important to choose your own pace and if you succeed at your level you might realize that being religious does not mean loosing all the pleasures in life

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