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Our Survival Begins
With The Individual
BETH COOK
Special to The Jewish News
A
recent discussion fol-
lowing Shabbat serv-
ices centered around
changes in tradition, vis-a-vis
women's participation in
synagogue ritual. It was asked
how we should view changes
the Conservative momement
has brought about. There is
still disagreement in our com-
munity over these issues and
perhaps these splits will only
be hedled in coming genera-
tions.
But a more important issue
was raised during the same
discussion: the fact that in
Conservative congregations
the percentage of families
really practicing Judaism at
home is very low. This issue
naturally brings to mind the
high rate of intermarriage and
assimilation and the questions
of how will Judaism survive
and whether our people are
dying spiritually.
I consider the great number
of families in this community
whose children are marrying
out of Judaism. Then I recall
the words of the "Sh'ma":
"Thou shalt teach them dili-
gently to thy children, speak-
ing of them when sitting in thy
house or walking by the way,
when lying down or rising up."
I seriously wonder how
many parents study or discuss
Torah at home at all, much less
on the regular basis described
in the Shima. We cry when our
children intermarry or leave
Judaism, but how many really
try to prevent that by making
Judaism a positive, meaning-
ful experience in the home?
Perhaps we blame the rabbi,
teachers or community when
things don't turn out right, but
isn't that an easy way out?
We are surely a hypocritical
people if we utter mere words
at synagogue and never put
these words into action. The
prophets warned us that empty
prayers and rituals are not
enough. They didn't say to
eliminate rituals. Observances
are beautiful vessels for the
teachings of our tradition.
They can make life special and
raise us up out of the ordinary.
Yet ritual alone is not all of
Judaism. Only a thoughtful
approach to ritual can give
meaning to Jewish life; that is,
connecting rituals to wisdom,
compassion and righteous liv-
ing; connecting Torah study to
the manner in which we live
each day.
So many of our problems
have to do with the challenge of
freedom and democracy. Obvi-
Beth Cook lives in Bay City.
36
Friday, February 27, 1987
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
ously no one can pry into the
lives of others to see how they
are practicing Judaism. The
social pressure of ghettos and
close-knit Jewish neighbor-
hoods is gone for most of us.
The burden rests on the indi-
vidual, and a heavy burden it
is. As much as we cherish it,
will the freedom we experience
in this country be our undoing?
Our Torah and traditions
give us the fundamentals of
how to live good lives, even in
the relative chaos of whatever
Will the freedom
we experience in
this country be our
undoing?
larger society we live in. Many
choose to ignore that tradition.
But those who follow it may
soon discover that attending
synagogue is only a beginning.
They face a daily struggle to
live these ideals, not just pro-
nounce them. They fail many
times but they keep trying.
It is never hypocritical to
keep seeking knowledge and
truth in a world filled with lies.
Only the one who constantly
blames others is a hypocrite.
Only the one who stops seeking
and striving is spiritually
.dead. Whoever said it was
going to be easy?
Exercise Not
For Everyone
Haifa —In findings which
challenged conventional wis-
dom that exercise is good under
any condition, Technion re-
searchers in the faculty of
medicine and department of
biology discovered that even
mild exercise — roughly the
equivalent of jogging — can
cause damage to muscles, re-
duce the efficiency and protec-
tion of body cells and put undo
pressure on the kidneys.
The Technion tests, which
were carried out on laboratory
mice, showed that while exer-
cise had a positive effect on the
muscles of young animals, it
caused considerable damage to
the muscles of those past mid-
dle age. Results for middle-
aged mice were mixed, depend-
ing on whether the subject
started to exercise at a young
age or not — those mice which
began exercise in their youth
and continued into middle age
showed positive results.
The young mice (six months
old) were roughly the equiv-
alent of the human age of 20-30
years, the middle-aged mice to
50-60 human years, and the old
ones (27 months - old) to 70-80
human years.