Got it, but just sayin', your mom may have different ideas. . .
I don't think any of us have "religious identities" in the afterlife, although maybe they have parties or reunions or teas or something...
Got it, but just sayin', your mom may have different ideas. . .
I don't think any of us have "religious identities" in the afterlife, although maybe they have parties or reunions or teas or something...
Haha yes,, who knows!Originally Posted by Tybee
Yeah--you're certainly more Jewish by birth than I am Catholic by baptism (although my mother was a CINO). The Jews have rules about those.things. Keep the one your mother would have wanted you to have. I believe in the power of "random" events.
I agree with Jane. How can it hurt to put it on your doorway?
I had to think about this.
Sure, it doesnt really hurt anything as far as I am concerned because I dont believe in what it represents. The Mezuzah has no meaning to me.
If I hung it on my door, a practice that isn't approved, I would be doing it to glorify myself. It makes a good story and that's why I would put it up. This would not be a sincere action.I dont want to be Jewish.
It is better that I give it away, that seems the right thing to do, a hgher degree of "right" I guess.
Some one created these items with care and thoughtfulness. Even if they don't have significance to anyone at present, respect the work that went into them and the artist who made them for a specific purpose, IMHO anyway.
As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
one can choose to follow a religion or not but since Jewish is also an ethnicity and a history, "I don't want to be Jewish" in some sense makes about as much sense as someone saying they don't want to be native american or asian or etc.. "I don't follow the Jewish faith" would be accurate. But if one doesn't follow it no harm in keeping it either, though I probably wouldn't want to confuse people by hanging it in the traditional manner. Would it be any different than if one had a cross charm in a drawer and weren't christian because it's pretty say, or a Buddha statue and weren't Buddhist, if one wears the cross then people make assumptions about one's beliefs ...
Trees don't grow on money
Actually, it does appear to be different than having a cross charm in a drawer, according to proscriptions I read on the internet. Three Jewish neighbors offered to help me with these, so these objects do appear, to me anyway, to have a sacred importance to others that i wouldnt give them.
My mother converted to Judiasm when I was 38 years old. That doesnt make me Jewish by ethnicity or history by my reckoning.
You have to do what seems right to you, IL. But it certainly seems like a weird random act!
On Wednesday, I had an interview with an 88 year old man who had aortic stenosis. He was an awesome guy. Plus he had a house with a totally amazing view near Palo Alto. My direct client (the person who hired me to do the market research) is a good friend of mine. The interviewee saw the name on the paperwork and he said, expectantly, "K..... that's a Jewish name!" I realized that he was hoping that I was Jewish, as he was. I wanted to tell him that my great-grandfather was Jewish, but that would have seemed totally gratuitous. So I explained that my colleague is Jewish.
I resist the impulse to be anything at all related to religion, which is why I haven't made it back to Catholicism formally (even though I "feel" Catholic still), and which is maybe why you don't want to hang the mezuzah. But if you feel any slight impulse to hold onto it, why not?
Last edited by catherine; 10-6-17 at 11:07pm.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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Why couldn’t you consult a rabbi? And release these items to their proper place. If they were nothing to you or had no connection then you would not have responded as you did and this discussion would not exist.
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