Page 70 - Hey-book-2011-activities-RE4-fpage_Neat_HTML5
P. 70
051
Why does the boy take his Kippah off?
How does this happen in „our‟ families?... how can you understand a
CD1, Track 11 child who grew up in a „sane‟ home,
tolerant, open and with sacred
pluralism… and out of the blue takes his
Kippah off? How do you explain it? And
how do you deal with the pain”.
Ya‟el Mish‟ali writes for family day
In the past, I couldn‟t understand the parents who have cut themselves off
from their children who became, or stopped being, religious. I used to think
that becoming religious or ceasing to be one has to do with a newly found
belief or a breach in faith. All within the boundaries of the relations between
a man and his G-d. There are those who find him suddenly and those who
lose him.
Today, after years of observing and listening to the young people who are
unraveling their initial lives, I know that nothing is about G-d. Not for those
becoming religious, and not for those who are taking the opposite journey.
When someone takes off his Kippah or suddenly puts it on, he does so
because he has lost his sense of belonging in the natural place where he
grew up. In the family and in the community.
In this sense, parents who cut themselves off from their children are not
doing something unusual and surprising; they are strengthening what existed
in the first place in the foundation of their relationship with the child. They
repeat whatever made the child choose a different life. They highlight
everything that disappoints and blocks.
Seemingly, there is no reason “to take your Kippah off” today. The size of
Kippah‟s, their colors, the materials they‟re made of and their meanings are
so diversified, they enable you to be so undefined under narrow and
committing definitions, that anyone can find himself having any kind of
relationship with G-d. Unless he wants to make an all-embracing social
declaration. I don‟t belong anymore. I don‟t want to be recognized as one of
“you people” any more.
RE 4 All rights reserved to Ulpan-Or (www.ulpanor.com) Do Not Copy!
Jerusalem: 02-561-1132 Tel Aviv: 03-566-1493 New York 1-646-393-4709
