This is the continuing story of a Jewish woman's spiritual journey and search. Jo Ann Schneider Farris has searched and searched for God in many different ways. In this blog, she tells her past, present, and future stories and shares her thoughts.
I woke up this morning singing this song. Then, I played it on the piano.
What puzzles me today is how some people would say that since this is sung and written by a Jewish musician (not Christian), that this music is not true "worship" music. It is so beautiful and does speak of God's greatness and wonder!
Anyway...I do love this song and it's what is on my mind of this beautiful morning!
From the CD, My Heart is in The East by Dan Nichols and Eighteen
May Your wonder be celebrated, may Your name be consecrated May Your brilliance never fade, from the magnificent world You made May Your ways prevail in our own days, in our own lives And in the life of all Israel And let us say, let us say, amen And let us say, let us say, amen May Your name receive the same beauty that You bring Though You are far beyond the sweetest song we could ever sing And let us say, and let us say, a-men And let us say, and let us say, a-men And let us say, and let us say, a-men And let us say, and let us say, a-men
To those I may have wronged, I ask forgiveness. To those I may have helped, I wish I had done more. To those I neglected to help, I asked for understanding. To those who have helped me, I thank you with all my heart.
This is an excellent video! I've cut and pasted the transcript below. What this young man says sums what it means to be Jewish. It is very well done and I have found myself watching this over and over again.
I am the collective pride and excitement that is felt when we find out that that new
actor, that great athlete, his chief of staff ... is Jewish
And I am the collective guilt and shame that is felt when we find out that that serial
killer, that Ponzi schemer, that wife beater ... is Jewish
I am the Jewish star tattooed on the chest of the teenager who chooses to rebel against
his parents' and grandparents' warnings of a lonely goyim cemetery by embracing that
same Judaism and making permanent his Jewish identity
I am all the words in Yiddish I've been called all my life that I still don't understand
I am going to all three Phish shows this weekend
I am my melody of Adon Olam. I am my melody of Adon Olam. The words may be the
same, but I am my melody of Adon Olam
I am not getting Bar Mitzvahed ... I am a Bar Mitzvah
I am a concept foreign to the rest of the world. I am not Judaism. I am sleep‐away camp
I am your grandmother who's seen Chortkov and Auschwitz, who's seen '49, '67 and '73
and who’s tired of trying to make peace with those people who just want to blow up
buses and destroy her people
I am the nineteen‐year‐old who's seen Budrus, Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Waltz
with Bashir and who thinks ‐‐ who knows ‐‐ peace is possible
I am the complicated reason you take the cheese off the burger you eat at the Saturday
morning tailgate
I am constantly struggling to understand my Jewish identity outside of religion
I am the Torah and not the Old Testament
I am a Kippah and not a Skullcap
I am a Jew and not an Israeli … 5,000 years old, not 60 … a religion, not a country
I’m never asked if I have horns or a pot of gold, if I rule the world or why I killed Jesus. I
am asked where my black hat is, if I really get eight presents on my Christmas, why my
sideburns aren't super long, and if I've really never tried bacon
I am asked what a Gefilte Fish is. I say, "I don't know. I don't like it. Nobody does. But we
eat it because it’s what we do"
I am asked if my dad's a lawyer. I say "No … my mom is … my dad's an accountant"
I am asked if my grandparents were in the Holocaust, as if it was a movie. "Yeah, they
were. But luckily they were also on Schindler's List"
I am on JDate and not Match.com because, well … it's just easier that way
I’m that feeling of obligation to buy the Dead Sea salt at the mall kiosk because you
know the woman's Israeli
I’m an IDF sweatshirt and the Chai around your neck
I’m a hundred‐dollar challah cover that you will never use and a five‐shekel piece of red
string that you will wear until it withers away
I am your Hebrew name
I am your Israeli cousins
I am your Torah portion and your thirteen candles
I am your Bat Mitzvah dress and the cute Israeli soldier on your Birthright trip
I am eighteen when I discover that Israel is not actually a Garden of Eden, of milk and
honey where Jews of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and styles of worship come together,
eternally happy and appreciative, to do a constant Hora in the streets of the Holy Land
… I am still confident that it will be
I am the way your stomach forgets to be hungry and your lungs forget to breathe when
the Rabbi commands the final Tekiah Gedolah and an entire congregation ‐‐ a
congregation that is not any one synagogue but an entire people ‐‐ listens to what on
January first is a ball dropping in Times Square, but today ‐‐ any day in late September or
early October for the 5,770th time is a Ram's horn being blown into for what seems like
ten minutes, like the eight days the oil burned, and how David defeated Goliath, and
how Moses parted the seas … it would have been enough, Dayenu. How we won the
war, and how your grandparents survived, Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, Shana Tova. Time for
bagels and lox because I am Jewish
I have devoted the past 20 plus years to my three children. I gave up pursuing a career to be a homeschool-unschool mom who gave my children and their activities priority. Recently, I've realized that that "job" is just about done.
As I took these photos of my three children hiking together on Spruce Mountain on October 8, 2016, I realized that they are about to go out into the world and begin their adult lives.
I cherish the time I gave them and I'm also glad that they will be one another's best friends for life.
This is a hard time for me though. I do hope I can figure out now how to continue to be there for them when they need me, but also I need to figure out what I am supposed to do now.
Been thinking about this a lot lately...yes it does sum "it" up....
I refuse...I can't....and I won't get cloned....
I've had it.
Steve Taylor's I WANT TO BE A CLONE
I'd gone through so much other stuff that walking down the aisle was tough but now I know it's not enough I want to be a clone
I asked the Lord into my heart they said that was the way to start but now you've got to play the part I want to be a clone
chorus:
Be a clone and kiss conviction goodnight cloneliness is next to Godliness, right? I'm grateful that they show the way 'cause I could never know the way to serve him on my own I want to be a clone
They told me that I'd fall away unless I followed what they say who needs the Bible anyway? I want to be a clone
Their language it was new to me but Christianese got through to me now I can speak it fluently I want to be a clone
(chorus)
Send in the clones Ah, I kind of wanted to tell my friends and people about it, you know What? You're still a babe you have to grow give it twenty years or so 'cause if you want to be one of his
got to act like one of us
(chorus)
So now I see the whole design my church is an assmebly line the parts are there
I'm feeling fine I want to be a clone
I've learned enough to stay afloat but not so much I rock the boat I'm glad they shoved it down my throat I want to be a clone
Everybody must get cloned
