My God—One Jew’S Views: Autobiographical Thoughts and Poems

By Joshua Katz

My God--One Jews Views: Autobiographical Thoughts and Poems captures in related essays, ruminations, and poems the milestones that mark Joshua Katzs life. He claims his Jewish identity while grappling with its meaning for his life, just as he finds both solace and challenge in contemplating Gods role in his daily affairs.

In the course of surveying the authors own life and thoughts, My God--One Jews Views takes the reader on a journey through times of education, recreation, love, marriage, and the heart-wrenching loss of children through still-birth and suicide. These events provoke thoughts about Gods nature, the point of religious practice, and the very search for lifes meaning.

Placed like interludes amid honest, introspective prose, are poems that explore the authors feelings as he experiences lifes passage. Mixing questions and observations, these poems confront the reader with the essence of the authors life. In Belief, for example, he writes, To believe or not--that is lifes question. / I think of my wife and smile with comprehension. / Until the waves stop crashing ashore, / Together lets be happy forever more!

Mem>My God--One Jews Views: Autobiographical Thoughts and Poems does not avoid the most personal and intimate details of the authors life, yet in that specificity lies the key to making a universal appeal. If you feel love in your life, if you know pain in your days, if youve ever questioned Gods purpose or whether religion really matters (regardless of your religion), then My God--One Jews Views will speak to you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jun 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781480818538

Joshua Katz

Joshua Katz, a practicing matrimonial attorney, earned a degree in English literature from the University of Michigan and studied writing at Columbia University. He plays the clarinet professionally, holds tournament rankings in tennis and bridge, and lives in Westchester, New York, with his wife and two surviving children.

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Copyright © 2015 Joshua Katz.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-1852-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-1853-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015908014

Archway Publishing rev. date: 6/11/2015

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 My Religious Foundation

Chapter 2 Wendy

Chapter 3 Bonni

Chapter 3 The Conversion Debacle

Chapter 4 Florida

Chapter 5 Back in the Lion’s Den

Chapter 6 Mikayla Bess

Chapter 7 Jacob

Chapter 8 Zachary Solomon

Chapter 9 To Join, or Not to Join

Chapter 10 Convalidation

Chapter 11 Temple Politics

Chapter 12 My Law Partner

Chapter 13 On Sending My Children to Private School

Chapter 14 Andrew

Chapter 14 Tragedies and Miracles

Chapter 15 Final? Thoughts

PREFACE:

As I sit and ponder over forty-six years of learning,

My eyes interpreting sights my ears have been fortunate in hearing,

My mind storing wondrous quantities of facts,

Making memories of now historical acts –

But to what end?

How will I know when I’ve achieved

what I was placed on this Earth to tend?

I will have succeeded in life once I have written my poem.

May it live forever on a shelf in your home.

To be sure, to be remembered (with love) after I’m dead

Is enough, but I want my poem to be read!

INTRODUCTION:

I believe in God; but, I am not religious. That is to say that I have little doubt of the existence of a higher being to whom I credit Creation and governance of life itself, and to whom I sometimes pray; yet I no longer consider myself a religious man. For me, this is an important dichotomy.

There was a time when I considered myself to be religious. I attended temple regularly on the Sabbath and even participated in temple politics – forgive me, I meant to say synagogue administration. I regularly performed multiple traditional rituals, simply because that is what I had been trained to do. Because my religion taught me that observance of particular rituals constituted proper behavior. In general, my life revolved upon my identity as a Jewish person. I was a Jew first, then an American, a boy, a son, brother, student, etc. None of this is true today, although it may become true again soon. In the meantime, I am good with my God. I love my God. I am a God-fearing man. I still identify myself as Jewish, although this is no longer central to my existence. I am first and foremost a father and husband, followed by lawyer, friend, man, tennis player, bridge player, clarinetist, etc. I’m not an agnostic; I have no doubt about the existence of God. I saw a bumper-sticker recently that read I am not religious, I just love God. That’s me!

How can I separate religion from God? I no longer accept as a given that God prefers any one religious tenet over another. I do not know that God hears my prayers any better when they emanate from the inside of a Jewish Synagogue as opposed to a Moslem mosque, Buddhist shrine or Catholic Church. I am far from convinced that the wearing of a yarlmukah on my head or fasting on the 10th day of Av brings me closer to Him.

What I know is that God wants me to fear Him. He (and I intend the use of this pronoun as gender neutral) expects me to act decently, to treat my fellow human beings with some modicum of respect, to strive to influence society, community and civilization in a positive manner. It is not that I necessarily fear a post-life sentence to Hell if I misbehave during my limited time on the Earth’s surface. Nor do I think there is a ledger scoring my good deeds against my bad. I do not flatter myself by believing my own good behavior might convince God to grant my Knicks a playoff berth (although I’ve been pretty good lately, and the Knicks suddenly discovered Jeremy Lin?), or that by holding the elevator door for a fellow passenger I will be rewarded with a winning lottery ticket. In fact, life has repeatedly demonstrated to me that good things happen to bad people. Despite this, it is important to me, for my own mental balance, that when I lay my head upon my pillow at night