Eikev D'var Torah by Troy Kirwin

Check out incoming UVA Freshman Troy Kirwin's fantastic d'var Torah from last Shabbat! Shavua Tov!

Troy Kirwin     August 10, 2012

College Send-Off D’var Torah

It’s been four long years.  Four challenging years.  There were certainly times when  my classmates and I felt as though there was no end in sight, no light at the end of the tunnel.  Constant exams, essays, projects, SAT prep- the list just goes on.  Yet they were also 4 exciting years, filled with success and learning.  Your Four years in high school are supposed to be the period in which you see yourself grow the most.  As we end one journey, we embark on what could be an even more daunting journey-four years of college.  
We stand poised to enter a future filled with uncertainty. The road before us is not set in stone by our parents.  It is waiting to be plotted out by us.  In some ways, college is like a proverbial bridge, connecting our current lives within the constraints of our parents’ homes to the point when we enter the real world for ourselves.  In the process we will stumble and fall, only to pick ourselves up again once more.  
This journey ahead of us shows several parallels to the journey that Moses led the Israelites on through the wilderness. They roamed 40 years through the unknown, battling trials and setbacks in order to start a new life for themselves.  Though our voyage may just be through a quad, a fraternity house or a crowded library and not a hostile desert, the point is still the same.  We are entering a new frontier.  Our way of life will change in more ways than one.  We will have to learn to live on our own, do our own laundry, make new friends and chart our own course.  

The most prominent way that our lives will change, however, is the fact that we are leaving what many refer to as the “Scarsdale bubble.”  As we all know, kids who grow up in Scarsdale live very sheltered lives, sometimes unaware of the reality of the outside world.  For those kids in Scarsdale who are Jewish, most grow up solely in environments where they are surrounded by other Jews.  Our school is predominantly Jewish, we go to camps that are mostly Jewish, we go on teen tours with other Jewish teens from the area, we go to religious school, and some of us even play what we dub “Jew Ball.”  Those teenagers around us who aren’t Jewish, are typically very accepting and respectful of the Jewish tradition because of their exposure to it.  But now, all of a sudden, we are at the point in our lives when we leave the bubble and face reality.    Many of my classmates made decisions about which school they wanted to attend based on the Jewish population at that college.  Maybe they were afraid to enter a world that didn’t resemble the bubble.  My mother’s friend told my mom that she did not want her son to go to school in the south because she was afraid of the way people might treat a Jewish boy from Scarsdale.  I also had a conversation with a friend of mine this past fall about what criteria we were looking for in a school.  I mentioned that I wanted to go somewhere unlike Scarsdale in order to experience a different side of life.  My friend told me that he would only go to school somewhere where there was a large Jewish population, and he suspected that most of his friends would eventually be Jewish.  

In this week’s torah portion, Parashat Eikev, Moses warns his fellow Israelites before entering the land of milk and honey about the importance of maintaining their devotion to God, Judaism and the commandments.  God will provide all that we need and love each and every one of us, Moses explains, just as he guided them to the promised land. Then, Moses cautions his companions.  He warns them that in this new land, there will be those who are non-believers in God and the Jewish tradition.  Trying to capture God’s wrath in his fiery speech, Moses tells the Israelites that God will deliver to them all those who fail to pray to the one true God, and that all the images of their alternative Gods should be put to the flames. The Israelites will even have to “annihilate” all those who question their Jewish ways, Moses warns.  

Though our journey into a new land lacks the theatrics of the Israelites’, there are some similarities that are worth noting.  For most of our lives, my classmates and I have never been in a position where we have had to defend our religion to those who have not been exposed to Judaism and who therefore challenge or even reject our religion either out of hostility or ignorance.  Living in the “Scarsdale bubble,” we have, sometimes intentionally, been protected from those who have negative opinions about Jews.  The question that lies at hand here is now that we are entering new schools where we as Jews go from the majority to the minority, will we still standup for our religion and our traditions against those who make disparaging remarks?

The answer will be different for each Jewish classmate of mine as we move forward, but I believe that the true answer results from how comfortable we are with our own Jewish identity.  This issue is something that we discussed a lot in my Post-Confirmation class here at WRT the last two years lead by Cantor Abramson and Nadav .  Your Jewish identity is whatever you believe makes you Jewish.  This could include your connection to God, your appreciation of the Jewish holidays, your eagerness to continue your Jewish education or possibly your commitment to doing mitzvot by helping out the greater community.  The more comfortable we are with our own Jewish identity the more likely it is that we will stand up for our religion.
Our family spends a lot of time at a country house in Litchfield County, Ct, an area with a miniscule Jewish population.  I have spent every summer of my life there and have made many great friends.  Through my years up there, I have learned from exposure what it is like to live outside the “Scarsdale bubble.”  First, I have witnessed the phrase “He/She is such a Jew” thrown around.  When I was younger, I did not have the confidence to say that I found that to be offensive but now I speak up for myself or whoever is the victim of the remark.  Also, at least on one occasion I have had someone say to me, “you know, you don’t seem or look Jewish.”  When they say this, they mean it in a way that, to them, is almost a compliment and in which the proper response in their view would be “Thank you.”  My conjecture is that through their ignorance to Judaism they only see a Jew as someone who wears a yarmulke  all the time, wears teffilin, or tsit tsit under their shirts.  Lastly, I have a couple friends from my summer home who are half Jewish, having had one Jewish and one non-Jewish parent.  By this measure I too, am half Jewish, though these friends of mine are either non-observant Jews or Christian whereas I have been raised exclusively in the Reform Jewish tradition.  Oddly enough, though I have been friends with each of these friends for most of my life, I only discovered that they were half Jewish in the last two or three years.  After hearing them speak about their Jewish heritage in conversation, I have determined that they are all almost embarrassed by their Jewish background.  Whenever someone learns that they are half-Jewish, they always specify that they don’t practice Judaism almost out of fear of what the other person might be thinking of them.  Two weeks ago, someone was in an argument with one of my half- Jewish friends and, in a belittling tone called him a “Jew.”  Later, when my friend was telling me this story, I told him that he should have stood up for himself and for his Jewish heritage.  It became evident to me that he was not comfortable doing that.  After reflecting on this event, I realized that part of the reason these friends of mine are too timid to confront those who think poorly about Jews is because they don’t have a strong connection to Judaism and have not formed their Jewish identity.  I, along with many of my classmates from high school who went to WRT, are lucky enough to have had the guidance of this temple in forming our Jewish identity.  
Just as Moses pleaded to the Israelites not to abandon their God or their teachings and to confront all those who denied the validity of their religion, I believe it is essential for my classmates and I to carry our connection to Judaism with us as we enter college.  We must be strong enough to take aim at those who mock our religion.  Most importantly, I hope that my Jewish classmates have all acquired the tools through religious school and other Jewish traditions to be able to educate those who are misinformed about what it means to be Judaism.  After all, misinformation is often the root of biases against unfamiliar cultures and religions.  I wish all of my classmates the best in their future endeavors and to enjoy the exciting journey ahead of us.