Jewish Religion Explained

My Grandmother’s father Louis had a story he used to tell. It was about God giving the Jewish people religion, and my Grandmother told the story to me when I was young. “It’s really not such a hard religion,” God said. “Here, I’ll write it down for you. You try it for a while and if it doesn’t suit you, bring it back.” So the Jewish people tried it and found it was too hard. For days, caravan upon caravan stretched across the desert carrying haftorahs, mezuzahs, yarmulkes,prayer shawls, commentaries and prayer books. God looked out at the caravans that stretched to the horizon and said, “What’s all this? All I wrote down for you were ten simple commandments.” Of course, I now realize there is more to Judaism than the story of the ten commandments. The full story is actually many, many stories — rich with history, irony, and lessons for our own lives