B”H
It’s so observant of you to notice my observance
And use that to determine
Who I am
I’m sorry society has convinced you it is a right
For your flesh to touch mine
Sorry that after you approached
I declined
to greet you in a manner
you find benign
But isn’t
Because if it was
You wouldn’t have walked away…
I am so much more
than my refusal to take your hand
so much more than what I do
makes up who I am
I think but, also value modesty
and somehow it seems you believe
that doesn’t make me interesting
or worthy of a bit of time
But my hand signals we’ll get along?
Right…
So to everyone who’s made their mind up about me
Based on these “religious” things,
I am so much more
than what I eat
or don’t
Or don’t care to eat
so won’t
But you can’t see past a skirt, or a hat,
or the fact I just don’t like pants
You think you “know me” and what I’m about
Based on when I will (or won’t) go out
And what rules I do
or do not keep
And even then
just how strictly
But I am so much more
than those boxes
Boxes you are determined to make fit
But there are some things I don’t tick
Or I tick them all
Or half the time
I tick them halfway
Because this life is mine
And contrary to your belief
My religion doesn’t just “tell me what to think”
I make choices that are good for me
NO! I’m not some stupid sheep
I think and learn
and think some more
And then do things
that touch my soul
A soul
Which I think you should get to know
Before you ever touch my body
There is so much more to me
Than how I connect Jewishly
But thank you for being so observant
Because observance is obviously all that makes a person
And you must be correct to assume
That I am “just like every other Jew”
Whatever that means…
Since you’re one too
And I might have more in common with you
Than you have come to judge me to
So, I guess what they say is half true
Of what happens when you assume
An “ass-” is definitely made of “-u-”
And “-me”?
Observe a girl who is very happy she didn’t shake your hand.
*In her letter to the Rebbe, a woman used the term ‘Orthodox Judaism.’
In his response, the Rebbe wrote: “I must point out to you that splitting Judaism into “orthodox, conservative, and reform,” is a purely artificial division, for all Jews share one and the same Torah given by the One and same G-d.
While there are more observant Jews and less observant ones, to tag on a ‘label’ does not change the reality that we are all one.”
