Combining Judaism and Non-belief

It seems like ages ago that I posted about my conflict over the Sunday School we had tried. I wanted Princess to know that we aren't the only Jewish family. I wanted to bring more Jewish culture into her life. I wanted to do this without the religious side of it. I thought I had found all this at Kol Shalom, a humanistic synagogue here in Portland, but after going three times and experiencing the class I didn't feel that I found what I was looking for.

This is such a long complicated path and I feel like I should share a little about how I got here as well as how it's possible to be a Jew and not believe in God. I didn't even know that there were others like me, but it turns out that others have believed as I do for a long time. Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine started the Humanistic Judaism movement way back in 1963.

Years ago I started to question things about my beliefs. A lot didn't make sense. I had issue with the fact that every prayer was, in essence, telling God how great he is. I even went so far as to talk with a rabbi asking why God was so insecure that he needed all this praise. He gave me answers, but I left feeling very unsatisfied.

My beliefs have changed over the years and I do still have beliefs. I believe that everything is energy and all energy if effected by all energy. I believe in the Law of Attraction. I believe that what you put out comes back to you.

I love the traditions of Judaism. After dropping the religious part of Judaism I really enjoyed the rest. It took me a while to realize that I didn't believe in a higher power, but once I realized that I was able to embrace the traditions of Judaism that I love so much. I just need to incorporate some changes into the way we celebrate, specifically the prayers.

Rather than go on and on I will post our celebrations as they happen and how they happen. I will try to include the changes that we make and how our celebration is different than the religious part. There are some holidays that we celebrate and some that, at the moment, we don't. I want to learn more about the ones we don't and decide if I'd like to incorporate them into our life.

I'm still at the beginning of this journey. I am looking forward to learning more and am happy to have you all read along.

Sunday School

I wrote a post about Sunday School a while back. I was really excited about this Sunday School...until we actually went. I liked it because of the fact that Princess was able to be around other Jewish kids so that she didn't feel like she was the only one. I also liked that it is humanistic (read Atheist). But the thing is that seeing these kids twice a month for September through June doesn't really build friendships.

The other reason I wanted Princess to go was to learn about some of the holidays and traditions that I have forgotten. The problem with that? Well, the first couple classes we worked on making calendars (the entire class time) and I knew more than the teacher about the names of the holidays and what the holidays were.

I teach a preschool and kindergarten age class at Village Home, our homeschool school. I know I could do a better job than this woman.

I'm not sure what the answer is. Maybe I just need to relearn the things I've forgotten and homeschool that the same way I homeschool everything else. Maybe I can invite the friends Princess has close relationships with already to learn with us. Maybe I could start a Yahoo group to find other Jewish Atheist families who want to get together, form relationships and have my own Sunday School.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I guess I just wanted to put it out there and see if anyone has any brilliant ideas.