By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — I don’t often go in for listicles, but this one time I felt I would delve into the online meme, just to see where it might lead. Here, based on a lifetime of living in the midst of the Jewish mindset in the 20th and 21st centuries, are my own “18 Reasons Why Judaism Matters.”
More reasons are welcome in the comments section below, of course.
- You get to celebrate Passover every year, ask the four questions when you’re a kid and revisit Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments on DVD.
- What other religion let’s you become an atheist but still accepts you as a member?
- Woody Allen! Sarah Silverman! Leonard Nimoy!
- The weekly Sabbath is a good time to turn off all your digital gadgets and focus not on distractions but on the real attraction: life itself!
- Deborah, Esther, and Ruth Ginsburg.
- Klezmer. Klezmerica. Klezreig.
- You get to drink wine when saying the blessings at a very young age.
- When it’s raining, one can see God’s tears.
- Positive thinking, 24/7. There’s no other way to live.
- Without a vision, the people perish. The sages left us many lessons.
- You get to argue over ”this” and ”that” without fear of ridicule.
- There’s no holding back the tears.
- The God we worship does not have to exist in fact in order for us to continue worshipping Her.
- When we pray, God listens. There’s not always a reply, but so what?
- We get along well with all other religions and wish them well on this journey from nowhere to nowhere.
- On an Earth that is over 4 billion years old. we know our place: humility, gratitude, patience.
- If the Big Bang Theory is true (and it is!), there’s a reason for each season.
- One plus one doesn’t always have to equal two: There’s room for eccentrics, dreamers and visionaries. Humorists, too.
Bloom, based in Taiwan, is an inveterate web surfer. Your comment may be sent to dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com, or posted on this website, provided the rules below are observed.
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