By Marion Lev Cohen (5-4-09)

Today is twenty-five days, which is three weeks and four days of the Omer.

 

It is a tradition to count the days between Passover and Shavuot, as we mark our freedom from slavery and celebrate our freedom to accept Torah. This is called "counting the omer." This year we will observe the tradition of "counting the omer" by sharing stories about the many different ways that we have been turned on to Jewish learning, and through Jewish learning to Torah.

My childhood was one of being double-dipped in a 24/7 Jewish educational environment. I attended Ramaz, a modern Orthodox Day School through twelfth grade; and I went to a religious Zionist camp for 14 years. At camp we spoke only Hebrew for eight weeks of the year, and tilled the soil to prepare us to make Aliyah. But my most valuable educational experiences happened in my home. Each Shabbat, I would take a walk with my father. We would discuss the weightier issues of life: What did God want from us? What did it mean to be a good Jew? Rather heady conversation to grow up on.

But it was during the summer of my 12th year, when my parents took me to Paris, that I had my most profound educational experience. When my parents had escaped from France during World War II, with my eighteen-month-old sister in tow; their next-door Christian neighbors, the Gelbarts, kept their valuables for them. We were returning to thank them and to collect the items they had left behind.

The Gelbarts invited us to lunch. When we arrived, they told us proudly that they knew we were strictly kosher, so they had prepared a special meal for us of chicken. The chicken was clearly not kosher. My father pulled me aside and whispered to me, "Eat the chicken!" At that moment, I learned the invaluable lesson that it is far more important to respect the dignity of another human being than it is to observe the letter of law. 

 

By Marion Lev Cohen

These stories are brought to you by the Temple Emanuel RE-IMAGINE project, an 18-month initiative sponsored by Hebrew Union College, devoted to re-thinking and re-structuring our religious school.