Classically Abby - May 08, 2024


Society CAN'T STAND Religion. Here's What They're MISSING.


Episode Stats

Length

14 minutes

Words per Minute

187.18167

Word Count

2,646

Sentence Count

184

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

In a world that thinks that religion is dumb, let's talk about 5 things that Judaism gets right. What are they? Why do they matter? How can we incorporate them into our day-to-day?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Today, let's talk about what religions got right in a world that thinks that religion is dumb.
00:00:10.400 Hello and welcome to my channel. If you are new here, my name is Abby and here we talk about
00:00:15.600 common sense commentary where we talk about things that I think are just common sense
00:00:20.780 but in today's day and age are considered controversial. So it was just recently the
00:00:25.700 holiday of Passover and I celebrated it with my community. I celebrated it with my family
00:00:30.980 and it was amazing. It was so beautiful. We had such a wonderful, meaningful holiday. But the
00:00:37.760 reason I'm bringing that up is because it got me to thinking. There are so many things that we do
00:00:44.860 as Orthodox Jews that are good for your humanity. They are good for people. They understand human
00:00:52.320 nature. And we live in a day and age that eschews religion as stupid, thinks that religion is
00:00:58.600 passé. And that is just not the case. The truth is that as an Orthodox Jew, I can say that so many
00:01:04.340 of the practices that seem frustrating or seem outdated are actually perfectly tailored for
00:01:11.060 people. And the religion itself understands how humans work. And I'm tired of the narrative that
00:01:17.000 religion is boring, it's out of touch, or even that it's just not worth your time. So today I want to
00:01:24.180 share five things that I think Orthodox Judaism specifically gets right. And maybe you can incorporate
00:01:30.320 some of these ideas into your day-to-day just because it makes sense. It's good for people. It's
00:01:36.960 good for you. So let's get into it. So the first thing I want to talk about is something called a
00:01:42.500 Minyan. In Judaism, in Orthodox Judaism, there are certain prayer services that we cannot do
00:01:48.600 unless there is a group of 10 men present. So we often source 10 men. We have now made our home a hub
00:01:55.980 for our neighborhood Minyan. And my husband had a beautiful take on this. He was saying that in
00:02:01.760 today's day and age, people often think that we are more connected than ever because of social media,
00:02:06.540 because of our phones, when in fact, most people are lonelier than ever. They can't even name three
00:02:13.360 friends that they're close to. And the thing about being an Orthodox Jew is that you need to know at
00:02:19.240 least nine other men. If you don't know nine other men, there are a ton of prayers that you can't even
00:02:24.660 participate in. And so it's necessary, it's important that you have nine other men that you are close enough
00:02:33.260 that you could call on them in an emergency. And that has been absolutely true for us. Throughout the
00:02:38.360 holiday of Passover, and now just into Sabbath, we have been able to call on many friends to complete that
00:02:45.880 Minyan, to complete that group of 10. So one of the things I think is so beautiful about Orthodox Judaism
00:02:51.000 is the idea that you have to be connected. You have to have a community. You have to have real life friends.
00:02:58.940 You can't just have your long distance friends. You can't just have your social media friends,
00:03:03.040 which, in all honesty, doesn't fill your cup in the same way as having a friend in your vicinity does.
00:03:09.840 Having a friend that you could call up on short notice and say, hey, we need you to complete our group
00:03:15.060 so that we can pray to God is an amazingly beautiful thing and something that we take for granted in
00:03:21.140 today's day and age when we think that friendship can be broader than that. Meaning you can think that
00:03:26.940 somebody is your friend who lives 200 miles away. And they are your friend. But people thrive in
00:03:32.840 close-knit communities. People thrive when they have real relationships where you are physically
00:03:38.480 close to one another and also emotionally close enough to call on a dime. I think that that's a
00:03:43.680 really beautiful part of religion that religion gets right. We understand the importance of
00:03:49.380 relationships. The meaning of life is essentially relationships. It's how you interact with other
00:03:54.980 people. It's how you understand the world. If you are living alone, if you have no connections,
00:04:00.060 you are not going to be happy. People are social creatures. There's a reason that we have
00:04:05.800 marriage, children, family structures. That is all part and parcel of how we understand and live in
00:04:12.260 the world. And religion embraces that, encourages that, and unfortunately I think that's lost to
00:04:18.680 the broader world nowadays where we don't value those things anymore and that's why we have so many
00:04:23.580 emotional problems. The second thing I think is so beautiful about Orthodox Judaism and that people
00:04:30.060 could learn from is the concept of not using technology. So every weekend we have Sabbath from
00:04:36.360 Friday night till Saturday night. And we are not supposed to use technology. We're not supposed to
00:04:41.600 use TVs. We're not supposed to use phones. And on Passover that was even more so the case because we
00:04:47.360 have something called a Yom Tov, a good day. Those are Chagim, holidays. Those are days that are kind of
00:04:53.980 like Sabbath but slightly less stringent. We're still not allowed to use technology though. And on those
00:04:59.600 days you're not supposed to be calling anyone, not supposed to be texting, you're not supposed to be
00:05:03.860 scrolling, you're not supposed to be watching TV. You just have to be present. And something that is
00:05:09.080 so lacking in today's day and age is being present. We are constantly distracted. We're constantly
00:05:15.260 distracted even when we're in the presence of friends. And that's one of the things again that
00:05:19.180 religion understands is that people need to be in the here and now. We can't always be distracted.
00:05:24.880 We can't always have our mind just able to be pulled away at any moment if we hear our phone buzz
00:05:30.340 or just watching a movie and zoning out. We need to be with people or sometimes we just need to have
00:05:36.580 solitude that doesn't involve distraction. And I think that that's one of the most wonderful things
00:05:42.140 about Sabbath. I hear this from from Orthodox Jews all the time how valuable these technology breaks
00:05:49.200 are. So if you aren't Orthodox and you're not observing a technology-free day, consider observing
00:05:55.140 a technology-free day where you send out a text at the beginning of the day to like a blast and you
00:06:00.660 say, hey, I'm off my phone from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. I won't be able to be contacted. I'm with my
00:06:06.940 family. I'm with my friends. None of us are going to be checking our phones. Done. Then you put your phone
00:06:11.960 away and you just spend time with the people that you love. Or you take some time by yourself. You
00:06:17.660 go for a walk and you don't bring your phone with you. I think that that is the stuff that we are
00:06:22.600 losing out on as we are constantly tied to our technology. And again, religion understands so
00:06:29.820 well the human mind and the idea that we shouldn't always be tied to our technology. It's a lot better
00:06:35.940 for us if we can put our technology away and live in the moment. The third thing I love about
00:06:43.060 Orthodox Judaism, which also can be annoying when you initially think about it, but then in practice
00:06:48.560 is so incredible, is walkability. So one of the things that is required of Jews on Sabbath is we
00:06:57.000 are not allowed to drive. So we have to be within walking distance, not only of our synagogue, but of
00:07:02.960 everybody else in our community. So essentially everyone in the community lives within a square
00:07:07.700 mile. The reason that gets annoying is when you're actually looking to buy a house, that square mile
00:07:13.920 is a very hot piece of real estate. Like it's very hard to find a home within that area because
00:07:21.160 everybody wants a home in that area because they all want to live close to their synagogue and close
00:07:25.140 to their friends. But that's also what makes it absolutely imperative. Having a day where nobody
00:07:32.460 drives, where the kids all walk to each other's houses, where everybody is in walkable distance
00:07:38.000 to each other and isn't driving is huge. There's a reason that when you watch old shows from the 1950s
00:07:45.280 and everybody's kind of riding their bicycles and there's that village small town feel that you get
00:07:50.520 this feeling of like warmth and cuddliness. It's because everybody is in their community. They aren't
00:07:57.000 driving off to go do something out of their community that day. Everyone has to be close
00:08:02.500 knit because you are physically close enough to do so. This is something about Orthodox Judaism that
00:08:07.960 so rocks. It's like the best thing ever is that everyone is so physically close. We can walk to our
00:08:15.620 friends and hang out with their kids. We have a cul-de-sac down near our neighborhood where all of the
00:08:20.700 houses in that area are Jewish homes and all the kids play all afternoon on Saturday. And it is the best.
00:08:26.500 Like we can just walk over there, bring our kids. All the parents are talking to each other. All the
00:08:30.460 kids are playing. It's such a blessing. As opposed to everybody lives really spread out. I have to
00:08:36.580 make plans to drive to your house, to knock on your door, to make sure that I can come over and not
00:08:41.200 bother you. Everyone expects there to be a knock on the door during Shabbos, during Sabbath. We all expect
00:08:47.840 our friends to come on over and hang out. We invite groups of people over and say, hey, anyone who wants
00:08:53.240 to stop by can stop by because you're in walking distance. It's a game changer. And I think that we
00:08:59.780 have lost the thread on that because driving is so easy and because real estate is so expensive.
00:09:06.000 But when they say location, location, location, when it comes to finding a home and why things are worth
00:09:11.580 more, they're right. The location of where your home is, is more important than the home itself.
00:09:16.840 Our home, I love our house. Don't get me wrong. But this was not initially our style and we would have chosen
00:09:23.380 a different style of house if we really had our druthers. But we wanted to be in this community,
00:09:29.680 in walkable distance to everything, more than we cared about our style of home. And I would not exchange
00:09:34.660 that for the world. I would not rather live in a house that was our style, that was completely distant
00:09:40.320 from everybody we know and love, than be in a house that's like maybe a little bit lesser style. But we can hang
00:09:46.360 out with people and our children can hang out with people whenever we want. The fourth thing that religion
00:09:51.960 today gets right, that we have taken for granted as a society, is that having kids is a good thing. We live in a
00:10:00.160 community where the standard is about four kids. Like three kids is a little bit on the low side and four kids is
00:10:06.220 standard. That's just what people think and what people believe. That like you should have a big
00:10:10.200 family. Okay. Like everyone agrees that that's normal. When I say that kind of thing on the
00:10:15.480 internet, the responses I get are crazy. People are like, it's too expensive to have children. Or
00:10:21.820 why are you trying to overpopulate the world? Or you just don't understand what it's like to have
00:10:27.460 more than two and that's why you want five. It's really frustrating that we live in a day and age
00:10:32.220 that puts the individual ahead of the family and ahead of children. We have this expressive
00:10:38.180 individualism where people think that they are going to find happiness by finding themselves
00:10:42.600 and everyone is incredibly unhappy because that's not how it works. The meaning that you find in your
00:10:48.500 life is through relationships, right? You are defined by the people who love you and who you love.
00:10:53.480 And having children is an extension of that. It's not just about you and you going out and pursuing
00:10:58.600 your dreams and you're alone and you don't have family and you don't have friends. Are you kidding?
00:11:02.720 If you had your dreams and you had no one alongside you, that would not be success.
00:11:07.640 Having kids is part and parcel of having a happy life. And so I love that religion values children
00:11:13.160 so highly and knows how important it is to raise the next generation and raise the next generation
00:11:18.900 well. Religion gets that having kids is joyful and meaningful and everything you could want out
00:11:25.620 of life. Whereas today, instead of that, we think of children as a burden so that I can't do my normal
00:11:33.560 day-to-day. I can't go to a bar at 8 p.m. and stay out till 1 a.m. and sleep until 10 the next day.
00:11:40.220 Correct. Because that's not important. And to be honest, that's fun every once in a while. But if you
00:11:45.160 were only doing that ever, it would not be fun. So I think that religion really gets right how important
00:11:50.960 having children is and how beautiful having children is and how absolutely glorious it is to
00:11:57.600 have a big family. The last thing I wanted to mention is the value that we place on history
00:12:04.520 and that religion generally places on history. Over Passover, we hold a Seder. We actually have
00:12:09.880 two Seders outside of Israel and that's where we sit down and tell the story of leaving Egypt. We tell
00:12:15.200 it to our children. We tell the story of how we were slaves in Egypt and how God redeemed us. And we do
00:12:20.400 this every single year. We all know the story from the time we're little kids. And it's because we
00:12:25.700 know how important our history is. And something we see nowadays is this disdain for history. Is the
00:12:32.140 idea that anybody that was before us who did anything different than we do or wrong, it should
00:12:37.540 be forgotten. We should forget it as opposed to learn from it and respect those who came before us
00:12:43.420 while also understanding there are things that we can do differently. There's so much value to knowing
00:12:49.700 and discussing your history. And religion does that. Religion encourages us to understand the
00:12:55.780 people who came before us, to learn from the people who came before us, to respect and honor those who
00:13:00.540 came before us, while also saying sometimes people before us, even if they were wise, made mistakes or
00:13:07.480 held beliefs that were standard for the time but are still immoral and unacceptable. And religion reminds us
00:13:13.320 that history is not something to be erased. It's not something to be forgotten. It's something to
00:13:19.160 have in our hearts and move forward with that knowledge. And that's an amazingly beautiful thing
00:13:25.440 that we should all be doing is looking to history to learn and understand our future or else history
00:13:31.340 will repeat itself. So that is today's pitch for five things we can learn from religion even if you're
00:13:37.040 not religious. I think that these things are so important and understand human nature at such a
00:13:43.080 deep level. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below. And I would love if you
00:13:47.740 would leave down below your favorite spring emoji because we are definitely into spring. In Florida,
00:13:53.820 it feels like summer, but it's definitely getting close to spring. I would love to see your emoji down
00:13:58.080 below. Thank you so much for watching until the end of today's video. Please make sure to subscribe
00:14:03.340 and hit that notification bell. I'll see you guys in my next one. Bye!