Tough Questions Jews Ask 2/E , livre ebook

Turner Publishing Company - Edward Feinstein

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What your rabbi probably has never told you, but could—if you'd only ask.

"Every day I wonder if God is real, if the Torah is true. Every day I wonder why I’m a Jew. But that’s part of being Jewish. In the Torah, we’re called Yisrael—the ones who wrestle with God. Wrestling, asking, wondering, searching is just what God wants us to do! God loves good questions. Now tell me, what are your questions?"
—from Chapter 1

In Judaism we’re allowed to ask questions. We are invited to ask them. But for young people, it often feels as if no one is willing to take tough questions about religion, ourselves, and the world seriously.

This updated and expanded new edition of Tough Questions Jews Ask turns that all around. With honesty, humor and respect, Rabbi Edward Feinstein tackles topics as diverse as:

Why Does God Let Terrible Things Happen?
What Is God Anyway?
If I Pray for Something, Will I get It?
What’s the meaning of life? Is that a dumb question?
Why Does Religion Need So Many Rules?
Why Be Jewish?

With insight and wisdom—and without pretending to have all the answers—Rabbi Feinstein encourages young people to make sense of the Jewish tradition by wrestling with what we don’t understand.

Preface to the Second Edition vii
How to Read This Book ix
Acknowledgments xi

1. Am I Allowed to Ask? 1
Does It Make God Mad If We Ask Questions? 1

2. Who Believes in God Anymore? 6
Why Should I Believe in God? Why Should Anyone? 6

3. Do I Have to Go to Services? What Good Is Praying? 12
Does God Listen? Does God Answer? 12
If I Pray for Something, Will I Get It? 16
Do I Have to Go to a Synagogue to Pray? 19

4. Talking Snakes and Splitting Seas … Is Any of That Stuff in the Bible True? 22
If God Talked to Everyone in the Bible, Why Doesn't God Talk to Anyone Today? 26

5. Why Does God Let Terrible Things Happen? 30
How Can Anyone Believe in God after the Holocaust? 34

6. What Is God Anyway? 39
What's That about God Being a Shepherd … Are We Supposed to Be Sheep? 44

7. What's the Meaning of Life? Is That a Dumb Question? 49

8. No Cheeseburgers? No Going to the Mall on Saturday? Why Does Religion Need So Many Rules? 55

9. 2 T*Xt Or Not 2 T*Xt? 64
What’s Wrong with Texting? What Harm Can It Do? 64

10. What Do You See When You Look at Me? 71
Can I Get a Tattoo or a Piercing and Still Be Jewish? 75

11. Why Are There So Many Different Religions? Aren’t They All the Same? 79
What Is Christian Religion About? Is It Really
That Different from Our Religion? 82
Can a Person Be Half-Jewish, Half-Christian? 87
Why Won’t Mom Let Us Have a Christmas Tree? 88
What about Islam? Can I Be Friends with Muslims? 90

12. Why Do People Hate Jews? 94

13. If We Live Here, Why Is Israel So Important? 99

14. Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform—Why Can’t I Just Be Jewish? 104

15. What Happens to Us After We Die? 111
Do Jews Believe in Heaven and Hell? 111

16. What’s the Messiah? 117

17. What’s a Bar Mitzvah? What’s a Bat Mitzvah?
Can’t I Just Have a Birthday Party? 121
Why Do We Have to Keep Going to Hebrew School Even After We’re Bar Mitzvah? 124

18. Why Is It So Important to Marry Someone Jewish? 128
Why Can’t I Just Marry Someone I Love? 128
What If I Fall in Love with a Person Who Isn’t Jewish but Wants to Be? Can Someone Join Up? 132

19. Why Be Jewish? 134

One More Thing 137
Suggestions for Further Reading 138

Sujets

Young Adult Nonfiction

Philosophie et théologie

Judaism

Religion

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Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	06 janvier 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781580236072
Langue	English

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Contents
Preface to the Second Edition
How to Read This Book
Acknowledgments
1.Am I Allowed to Ask?
Does It Make God Mad If We Ask Questions?
2.Who Believes in God Anymore?
Why Should I Believe in God? Why Should Anyone?
3.Do I Have to Go to Services? What Good Is Praying?
Does God Listen? Does God Answer?
If I Pray for Something, Will I Get It?
Do I Have to Go to a Synagogue to Pray?
4.Talking Snakes and Splitting Seas … Is Any of That Stuff in the Bible True?
If God Talked to Everyone in the Bible, Why Doesn’t God Talk to Anyone Today?
5.Why Does God Let Terrible Things Happen?
How Can Anyone Believe in God after the Holocaust?
6.What Is God Anyway?
What’s That about God Being a Shepherd … Are We Supposed to Be Sheep?
7.What’s the Meaning of Life? Is That a Dumb Question?
8.No Cheeseburgers? No Going to the Mall on Saturday? Why Does Religion Need So Many Rules?
9.2 T*Xt Or Not 2 T*Xt?
What’s Wrong with Texting? What Harm Can It Do?
10.What Do You See When You Look at Me?
Can I Get a Tattoo or a Piercing and Still Be Jewish?
11. Why Are There So Many Different Religions? Aren’t They All the Same?
What Is Christian Religion About? Is It Really That Different from Our Religion?
Can a Person Be Half-Jewish, Half-Christian?
Why Won’t Mom Let Us Have a Christmas Tree?
What about Islam? Can I Be Friends with Muslims?
12.Why Do People Hate Jews?
13.If We Live Here, Why Is Israel So Important?
14.Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform—Why Can’t I Just Be Jewish?
15.What Happens to Us After We Die?
Do Jews Believe in Heaven and Hell?
16.What’s the Messiah?
17.What’s a Bar Mitzvah? What’s a Bat Mitzvah? Can’t I Just Have a Birthday Party?
Why Do We Have to Keep Going to Hebrew School Even After We’re Bar Mitzvah?
18. Why Is It So Important to Marry Someone Jewish?
Why Can’t I Just Marry Someone I Love?
What If I Fall in Love with a Person Who Isn’t Jewish but Wants to Be? Can Someone Join Up?
19.Why Be Jewish?
One More Thing
Suggestions for Further Reading
About the Author
Copyright
About Jewish Lights

Preface to the Second Edition
What’s new in this new edition? Based on the wonderful reactions from so many readers since Tough Questions Jews Ask was first published, and changes that have taken place among Jewish teens, I’ve added three new questions to this new edition that today’s teens are grappling with. Together, we take a look at the pros and cons of the new powerful ways we have of communicating, and show why face-to-face communication is still the most meaningful. We learn why the Torah forbids Jews to get tattoos and body piercings, and how making your mark through kind actions can be a much more powerful symbol of individuality. We also explore the religion of Islam, dispel some myths, and identify some similarities between the Muslim faith and Judaism. I hope you’ll find the new material even more relevant to your needs, whether as a teen student or as a teacher or parent. If you would like to share your reactions to the new material with me, please send me an e-mail at efeinstein@vbs.org .

How to Read This Book
I ’ve always had lots of questions—tough questions, the kind of questions that just won’t go away. Even though I had wonderful teachers growing up, teachers who listened patiently and tried to help me find answers, my list of questions just kept growing. (Good questions never go away.) One of the reasons I started studying to be a rabbi was to find answers to my own questions.
When I became a rabbi, I promised myself that I would never turn away anyone who had a good question. And so, for more than twenty years I’ve been listening to questions—from kids and adults, from teens and seniors, from Christians and Jews. Some questions have easy answers. Most of the really good questions can’t be answered at all. I’ve tried to help people think about their questions and seek out their own answers.
This book is a collection of some of the best questions I’ve been asked and the responses that have helped people think more deeply. To make it fun, I imagined that the people who asked the best questions were all in one class. So the class I describe here is made up, but the questions are real and the people who asked are real. (I changed their names to keep their parents from getting mad at them for giving the rabbi a hard time!)
You can read the chapters in order, or you can skip around. You might want to keep a log of your own answers to the questions and a list of new questions that come up as you’re reading.
As you read this book, please remember that there are many, many different ways to be Jewish. There are many different ways to understand and practice the Jewish religion. There are many ways to come close to God. There are many ways to answer life’s toughest questions. We Jews are like a family sharing conversation at the dinner table. There is never only one right opinion, never only one way to be Jewish. These answers are one person’s ideas and interpretations. I’m a rabbi, and I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking and learning about these things, but I’m still just one person. You can agree or disagree with me; you can argue with me. (In fact, I hope you will.) Your parents, your teachers, even other rabbis may have completely different answers to the questions. I hope you’ll go and ask them to share their ideas. Most of all, I hope you will never stop asking. I believe that God loves good questions.

Acknowledgments
I am grateful to all those who have asked me tough questions over the years, including the kids, staff, and families of the Solomon Schechter Academy of Dallas, where I was principal; Congregation Shearith Israel, where I was rabbi; Camp Ramah in California, where I was the director; the Ziegler Rabbinical School of American Jewish University, where I teach; and Valley Beth Shalom, where I’m a rabbi.
I have been very fortunate over the years to have many loving teachers who listened to my endless questions. These include Rabbi Elijah J. Schochet, Professor Elliot N. Dorff, Professor Neil Gillman, Rabbi David Hartman, and my mentor, Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis. I’ve been blessed with loving colleagues and friends who have helped me seek the answers. I am grateful to every one of them for sharing their wisdom and support.
I thank my editor, Bryna Fischer, for her help and patience. I thank Stuart M. Matlins, publisher, and the people at Jewish Lights for making this book and so many works of light and wisdom accessible to thinking, seeking souls.
And I thank God for the blessing of a loving family; for my parents, Dov and Chaiky, z”l , Herb and Geri; for our kids, Yonah, Nessa and Daniel, and Raffi; and for Nina, who has answered so many of my questions.

1
Am I Allowed to Ask?
Does It Make God Mad If We Ask Questions?
They were the worst class anyone could remember. “Teacher-slayers,” they were called. It was only December and already they had sent three teachers into early retirement. Mrs. Goldenberg, a veteran of years of teaching seventh grade, left after a month of their rude behavior and cruel practical jokes. Mr. Weinberg presented himself as a “cool” young teacher who rode a motorcycle to the synagogue and quoted lyrics from the latest songs. He lasted a week and a half. Ms. Alon, once a sergeant in the Israeli army, had survived real terrorists, but she couldn’t survive this class.
I was the last resort. I’m the rabbi. I’m supposed to know how to perform miracles.
I suppose it was something of a miracle that happened. The kids in the class realized that it was one thing to knock off a few ordinary teachers; it was quite another thing to get on the wrong side of your rabbi. After all, they all looked forward to celebrating a Bar or Bat Mitzvah in the coming year. And for that, you need the rabbi.
When I walked into the room, they were ready. Not with their usual greeting of foul words, bored looks, spitballs, and paper airplanes, but with a sort of petition.
Dear Rabbi,
As you know, this is our graduating year in the Hebrew School. But we still have lots of questions that never got answered in the years we’ve been here. Instead of learning the stuff in the book, could we please spend the time we have left this year answering these questions?
Respectfully,
The Seventh Grade Class
“Sounds like a great idea,” I responded. “Let’s begin right away. I’ll try to answer any questions you have. What’s your first one?”
There was a moment of silence, as if they hadn’t really expected me to go along with the idea. And then the girl who handed me the petition said softly, “I have lots of questions about God and stuff, but I’m afraid if I tell you, you won’t let me have my Bat Mitzvah. So I wonder, are we really allowed to ask you questions? Does it make God mad if we ask questions?”
That’s how we started.
L et me tell you about my Bar Mitzvah. The week before my Bar Mitzvah, I was a mess. I had just turned thirteen. I was becoming an adult, or so everyone was telling me. I was scheduled to stand up in front of the rabbi, my family, and the congregation and tell everyone how proud I was to be Jewish. But I was so full of questions! Why am I Jewish? Do I really believe in all this? Do I really believe in God? Do I believe the stories in the Torah or the words of the prayer book? How can I believe God exists if the world is so full of suffering? Who needs a Bar Mitzvah, anyway? How can I honestly go through with a Bar Mitzvah if I’m so full of qu