Taking religion seriously means work. If you're waiting for a road-to-Damascus experience, you're kidding yourself. Getting inside the wisdom of the great religions doesn't happen by sitting on beaches, watching sunsets and waiting for enlightenment. It can easily require as much intellectual effort as a law degree.
Even dabbling at the edges has demonstrated to me the depths of Judaism, Buddhism and Taoism. I assume that I would find similar depths in Islam and Hinduism as well. I certainly have developed a far greater appreciation for Christianity, the tradition with which I'm most familiar. The Sunday school stories I learned as a child bear no resemblance to Christianity taken seriously. You've got to grapple with the real thing.
The sad thing is how many of our brothers and sisters put in the time and effort to get an Ivy league education in law, medicine, or business, but are content with a nursery school understanding of Judaism.
So true! I've noticed as people daven for the amud that they pronounce the cholom differ.tly in the first three brachos than they do in the rest of shmoneh esrei and my surmise is that this is because the had different teachers in the different grades who taught them differently.
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