Thursday, June 30, 2011

Orthodox Jews Wrestle with Teens Texting on Shabbat ... What Might Some Call This?

While perusing the online version of The Jewish Week today, I came across an article which discusses a tremendous difficulty the orthodox movement is facing ... teens who text on Shabbat.

My gut reaction was interesting ... "this is what we call Reform Judaism."  These are Jewishly-educated teenagers making decisions regarding how they celebrate/observe Shabbat.    : )

But then it made me think a little deeper ... perhaps this is simply teenage rebellion.  In other words, is sending a text on Shabbat a conscious decision regarding how these teenagers want to live?  Is it a conscious statement regarding how they believe they can be Jewish and modern in today's world? 

I've decided that I'm not so sure ... I don't want teenage rebellion to be mistaken for intentionality ... I don't want teenage rebellion to be mistaken for educated choice.  I don't want people to think that this kind of teenage rebellion equals Reform Judaism.   : )

Here is the article in case you want to read what some of the orthodox kids themselves say about this issue:

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national/many_orthodox_teens_half_shabbos_way_life.

No comments:

Post a Comment