WITH A WHOLE HEART

As all good ideas go, it starts with a problem searching for a solution.

Problem: Jamie hates religion. He hates the idea of it, he hates the rules of it, and he hates the phoniness of religious leaders he knows. He hates the money in it. He hates the theology of it. He hates the showiness of a religious service.

And, Jamie doesn’t believe in God.

Even when he was a kid and his Mom would ask him in times of trial, “Jamie, do you want to pray about it?” He would look at her like she was loony tunes and say, “For what?” And then the two of them would talk through the situation, Jamie asking his mom for advice, weighing his options, and making decisions how to move forward.

He was a child who never quite got a theoretical concept. At school his teachers knew, he needed hands on learning. At home his parents knew, “show” was better than “tell” and “let him fail” was a much more effective way for him to learn.

Jamie has a wild streak. He’s impulsive, he is fearless. He gets excited to take on a challenge that most people would never dream of accepting. Sometimes it works to his advantage, other times he finds himself on the short end of the stick. He was twelve when he had his first encounter with the law. He and a buddy discovered how easy it was to shoplift fancy fountain pens from the stationary store on the corner and resell them at school. When he got caught his Mom was shocked and disappointed. “How could you?!!” She said to her son. Where is his moral compass? She thought to herself.

Jamie is a Jewish boy. The Larkins’ celebrate every Jewish holiday and Candy Larkin, (Jamie’s mom) is a deeply spiritual person. But  the family didn’t have any formal religious affiliation, they didn’t belong to a synagogue, there was no spiritual community to turn to. Candy decided “Now is the time!”

So, she marched Jamie over to the local synagogue to enroll him in after school religious studies. It’s called Hebrew School. The general focus of Hebrew School, then and now, is to teach Jewish kids about Jewish holidays, to prepare them for their Bar or Bat Mitzvah and to teach them Jewish values.

Candy wanted in for Jamie around the the Jewish values part. There was an immediate need. But it was a package deal and Jamie was late to the party. Most kids start a religious education at age eight and here comes a twelve year old just one year away from becoming a Bar Mitzvah. Jamie was given a teacher and thus began his unfortunate religious experience that he will tell you; “scarred him for life”.

On the other hand, Candy hit it off with the Rabbi who suggested...read more