Mine's Not A High Horse (Anymore)

So you may remember a post of mine from a long, long time ago about how, since I'm an atheist, I don't like being pressured into participating in religious activities, and how I'll try very hard to avoid doing so. How hard? Well, judging by this past weekend, not very.

My grandmother was being honored upon her retirement for her 25 years of service to the Synagogue where she worked. This involved a kiddush luncheon and also several mentions of her in the service, including the participation of her, her daughters, and (you guessed it!) her grandsons.

So my brother, two cousins, and I got to go up and dress the Torah (I'm sure that's not what it's called, but it's an accurate description), each of us decked out in a yarmulke and tallit. Four non-Bar Mitvah'd Jewish boys faking it (and not very convincingly). Did I feel like a fraud? Yes. Did my grandma just about plotz (explode)? You betcha. And in the end, that's why I don't really feel bad about it.

The worst part of the service, actually, came when the cantor paraded the Torah around the sanctuary before placing it back in the ark. He stopped briefly at each row and the congregants reached out to touch the Torah. When he got to me, I stood stock-still for what seemed like an eternity, with the cantor glaring at me, before he moved on. Thing is, the adulation people were showing for the Torah just seemed inappropriate (isn't idolatry, like, totally forbidden in the Ten Commandments?). I mean, I'm no Talmudic scholar or nothing, but I totally was not buying the argument in the English-language section of the prayer book that this sort of thing was different from idol-worship. I can understand considering holy the words in the Torah, but not the book itself.

Finally, I have to say that I kinda enjoyed the sermon (or whatever you call it) that the Rabbi gave. Partly, it was because the Rabbi emphasized that the Torah is not to be understood literally, something that I think a lot of people seem to forget nowadays. Secondly, I actually kind of enjoy all of those Mosiac stories. Maybe it's just because they resemble history (and, in fact, may actually be history, albeit with some, uh let's say, embellishments).