{"id":36165,"date":"2014-05-30T12:48:28","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T12:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=36165"},"modified":"2014-05-30T12:49:26","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T12:49:26","slug":"maya-angelous-insight-orthodox-jewish-continuity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/maya-angelous-insight-orthodox-jewish-continuity\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya Angelou\u2019s Insight Into Orthodox Jewish Continuity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared at finkorswim.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"mayaAng_slide\"With the passing of Maya Angelou, I am reminded of one my favorite quotes from one of the most inspiring figures of the 20th century. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Maya Angelou (1928 \u2013 Today) <\/p>\n

To me, this beautiful quote from the late, great Maya Angelou, encapsulates so much of the tension in Orthodox Judaism today. Generally, people in the community are either baffled by any dissatisfaction in Orthodox Judaism or convinced they have an intellectual response that can fix the problem. There is a tendency to believe that if we say the right thing or if we do the right thing everyone will be content in our community. Or that even if individuals are unhappy or uncomfortable, it doesn\u2019t matter because it\u2019s their problem if we did the right thing and they are still disgruntled. It\u2019s the philosophy that assumes that there are objective responses to subjective circumstances and that we can preselect the experience of community members by providing a particular group of words or ideas. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not true. Two people can have the same experience but feel completely differently. There is no objective version of Orthodox Judaism. Despite our best intentions and our greatest efforts, the correct answers or even our sincerity don\u2019t really determine the fate of everyone\u2019s commitment to Orthodox Judaism. The thing that makes or breaks Orthodox Jewish continuity, in my opinion, is \u201chow we made them feel.\u201d <\/p>\n

This is what Maya Angelou taught us in the quote above. Our memories are selective and some things stick for longer and dig deeper than others. Words and actions can make an impression on us, but they are not the thing that make the strongest impression on us. The way we feel matters most. If some of us do not feel safe, comfortable, and joyful within the context of Orthodox Judaism, those feelings matter more than any intellectual or ritual attachment we have to our traditions. It\u2019s that simple. <\/p>\n

The most important thing we can do for the future of Orthodox Judaism is not to come up with the best answer to R\u2019 Akiva Eiger\u2019s bomb kashya or be diligent about halachic observance l\u2019chumra. Let\u2019s assume that\u2019s being done already. But that\u2019s just what we say and what we do. Certainly, that\u2019s extremely important. Saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing is harmful. But the thing that matters more is the way the things we say or do make others feel. If their feelings are negative and fearful, then that is what they will remember. Our words and actions will drown in the sea of negative emotion. The most important thing we can do is make sure that when people remember \u201chow we made them feel\u201d they are remembering the positive feeling they had. <\/p>\n

Therefore, our concern should be to create positive Jewish experiences and also acknowledge and relieve the pain of negative experiences. How we feel matters even if everything was done \u201cright.\u201d Being right does not determine how another person will feel. We need to be conscious of those feelings irrespective of saying or doing what is right. Conversely, we can manufacture good experiences and emphasize the importance of positive feelings towards our Jewish experience. That is the thing that people remember. Let\u2019s make sure our community remembers that Orthodox Judaism should feel good and let\u2019s make an effort to cultivate those positive experiences so that our community remembers goods feelings. And they will remember how we made them feel. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared at finkorswim.com. With the passing of Maya Angelou, I am reminded of one my favorite quotes from one of the most inspiring figures of the 20th century. \u201cPeople will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.\u201d \u2013 Maya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":784,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nMaya Angelou\u2019s Insight Into Orthodox Jewish Continuity - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/finkorswim.com\/2014\/05\/28\/maya-angelous-insight-into-orthodox-jewish-continuity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maya Angelou\u2019s Insight Into Orthodox Jewish Continuity - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article originally appeared at finkorswim.com. 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