Religion: Judiasm and a Decision

Throughout the earlier years of my life, religion was just something being taught to me because it was what my parents wanted. I had no idea what everything meant and that i was learning about something alot larger than the little hebrew letters and songs in my practice book. But I was young then, mentally and physically. I was at hebrew school becaus thats where my parents dropped me off on sunday. I treated it like regular school at the time, learn only what i need to please the teachers and never actually apply it to my life. I was there merely because it is what my parents prefered, I could car less at the time.

Thinking back on those days, sitting in a tiny class learning and memorizing those letters and words I now see that it was just the start of me joining something alot larger than "Hebrew School". I may have been taught alot in hebrew school, but the majority of my learning came after I had my Bar mitzvah and was done with hebrew school.

As I grew older I started to recognize what I had actually been pushed into against my will, not that I don't love the religion, and I would definitely choose it if I had the choice at birth. I had entered into a religion, a minority of people (especially when I moved out to WA) and something that I have learned to treat as a guide for my life (most of the time). 

Being young and being taught a religion, in my opinion, defeats the purpose of religion in the first place. Forcing all of that information into a child and expecting them to understand is absurb. I may have been taught alot about the information of that religion when I was younger, but my learning didnt occur until later on in life, when I was finally given the tools to find things out on my own and was trusted to do things on my own. 

I then found more technical things about Judiasm that I agreed and disagreed with which i respected much more than I had ever had earlier on. Applying my life to that information was the easiest way to learn exactly what I needed to know to prosper in life and I was given the choice to follow them or not. 

I had not always been given these choices. My Mother is jewish and my Father is catholic. The kids in my family were "jewish" but also celebrated the catholic religion. We never really took part in the Catholic religion because we were focused on judiasm, not by choice though. As I got older I started reading into the different religions and weighing out what I agreed and disagreed with. I finally came to the conclusion one year that regardless of what religions i could be apart of I was going to be only Jewish. I told my mom of my decision that year when she was wrapping Hannukah/xmas presents. I told her to not wrap any of mine in xmas wrapping paper, I wanted all of mine on hannukah.

Right there I had made the first major decision in my life. No other decision meant nearly as much as this. My parents new it to. They didn't question and I see why they didnt now. I can look back on it now and realize that I may have been born jewish, but the decision was always there for me to make. I didnt have to be jewish, But I agree with it more now in my life after i have been able to look at all religions.