Catholicism holds little appeal—except for the rosary! That would be the perfect meditative technique for me. It keeps the brain busy in two ways (by reciting prayers and by reflecting on moments from the life of Jesus) making it possible to reach the deeper silence beyond all the alien voices in your head. And the Church has some great women mystics. I've read Teresa of Ávila and Julian of Norwich and have listened to Hildegard of Bingen's music. I'd like to read Hadewijch and to learn everything there is to know about the Beguines.
Protestants study the Bible. That's appealing.
The one Greek Orthodox service I attended was intoxicating. The liturgy felt like a meeting of the Book of Psalms and the Greek Magical Papyri. The mind-altering incense deepened the sense that Parashat Acharei Mot was unfolding before my eyes.
Zoroastrianism and Yezidism are ancient, mysterious, and intriguing.
Hinduism's glorious plethora of divine beings, stories, philosophies, yogas, and rituals feels less like one religion and more like a living library of spiritual possibility.
And of course, there’s Buddhism. If there is a “true religion,” it’s that. I sometimes wish it were for me. Maybe in some future, more evolved lifetime.
I’m not looking for a new religion. I have an all-encompassing religion, one I can practice in my kitchen, in a study hall, during evening minyan, in the women’s section at the Kotel, on Shabbat, or at work.
To call Judaism a religion misses everything. Judaism is more than a faith. It is an indigenous people cleaving to their heritage. It is culture, memory, and the refusal to forget. It is scholars in conversation with generations of other scholars. It is every new drash on a parasha we’ve read once a year for thousands of years. It is lived experience preserved and examined, because we don’t assimilate and forget. It is realism, not idealism, because our founding myth is slavery, not paradise. That’s why worldly suffering never surprises us. We don’t expect the world to be just. But we strive to make it just.
If some mysterious inner prompting ever nudged me away, I would listen. But eventually I would return home.
Whatever path I walk, I hope to travel it with open eyes and a grounded heart.
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