tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6550315839527219940.post6851355955305622944..comments2023-10-11T02:43:45.437-07:00Comments on CASAMURPHY: You're Welcome to My WeekLaynehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11202742050661813668noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6550315839527219940.post-29296956377441535652008-08-27T14:44:00.000-07:002008-08-27T14:44:00.000-07:00I'm trying to compose in Irish on my little re...I'm trying to compose in Irish on my little read blog (gee, I wonder why?) about L's China & Religion thoughts that she shared with me if not above. I think she should!<BR/><BR/>We encountered an article on our little beleaguered temple in the current issue of "Los Angeles" magazine by Ed Leibowitz, from of course N.J. Like every transplant, he tells us natives about what we overlook. He also has come to middle-aged Jewish life confronting the same questions most of those MOT's I know do, and Layne herself discusses here.<BR/><BR/>The lengthy article touched me, but I admit I was very disappointed that the quondam congregant whom I'd never met (no surprise as he comes about as often as we do of late) failed to mention Layne among those who helped the temple survive. The missus, I hope, is not numbered among the "hordes from Mt. Washington" blamed for trying to make the temple hipper in the mid-90s. Or at least to have a hostile takeover of it for their own guitar-playing singalong Shabbat. Au contraire, she remained loyal to the oldsters now commemorated on the memorial plaques, and I wish Layne got a nod, not that she'd ever want one.<BR/><BR/>The problem at the little temple in hispanized L.A., as always with Judaism: what about the kids? Leibowitz' news that there's a kiddie cohort again for his son Isaac-- as there was when we helped start one in those mid-90s-- is great. The cycle we were part of a decade and more ago repeats, and this for Judaism however attenuated does bode hope. However, we live in a neighborhood sharply divided by demographics, poor public schools, and cultural divisions. It's a nice place to settle in when you're a couple, but ten years on, many families drift off to upwardly mobile 'burbs, or at least spend more time and income in them than closer to home. So, once the kids mature past tot Shabbat, will they stay for the traditional service with the elders? Here's the test. Perhaps we flunked it.<BR/><BR/>As I think about Leo and Niall and our own less-than-enthusiastic reactions to the meager fare spiritually available on the average Saturday at any synagogue we've found, I wonder if my skepticism's to blame for our fate. But, I can't fake it. As a harsh critic, I suppose I'll never find my niche. Layne's also searching for hers, and we find much solace in our shared quest. It's taken us far in our twenty years, and its very presence sparked our romance and commitment on a profound if inarticulate level.<BR/><BR/>I guess the combo of guilt inherited by me (and Henry bless him is noted for his "pitch-perfect" Belfast brogue used to chide we laggards and no-shows when we do skulk into the shul) and adopted by me burdens me again. I'd prefer a Quaker meeting! I long for silence and time for introspection, but a Jewish service emphasizes the communal effort, the tribe, the heritage celebrated anew among insiders and adherents. <BR/><BR/>It can be a daunting service for the uninitiated, those with short attention spans, or the young.<BR/>Should I castigate myself for Layne's confusion, my inability to buy into any denominational program, my aloofness from those with whom I sit in a pew? Or, have we as a family matured to be able to take our own questions more often into the home-- which is the heart of the Jewish experience anyway, not a temple? (The $100 million sought for the triple-campus building plan by the only temple older than TBI surviving in L.A., Wilshire Blvd., a bit to the contrary, perhaps?)<BR/><BR/>For Layne, there's the ancestral link she's recharged, and my sons at JCA camp I think caught energy off this thread, if by clutching a pro-IDF strand from some sabra counselors! Still, such awareness of mispocha and pride in belonging ties together the hundred generations since the Hebrews wandered, their very name tied to "border-crossers," three thousand years ago. I'm proud of Layne and my sons for this tribal tie, and for her perceptions of it passed on to me and our blue-eyed boyos.<BR/><BR/>So, Layne, tell us about Arendt and bibles and Ukan Akpan's stories. You ask tough questions on the endless 101 to Oxnard that I want you to ask your readers. Don't keep them just for me. (Ask Dr. Bob, for example!) <BR/><BR/>I find myself writing about and reading about religion more and more, even if my own search on myriad paths does not further a Yiddishkeit which inevitably could not nourish Irish-addled me. Intellectually, I tend to connect with belief. My soul, chilly if you'd ask my spouse, remains harder to wear down to anyone's ministrations. Yet, we deep down, I as with my family, do identify at a nearly subcutaneous level, as when I read the "Forward" or think about my soul's orientation, with those who gather more faithfully than we can at Temple Beth Israel.John L. Murphy / "Fionnchú"https://www.blogger.com/profile/16616876266772470719noreply@blogger.com