Flying, Sitting, Observing.

During my long day of waiting at JFK on Jan 25, one of the few perks I got to experience was seeing many different types of people. While sitting and waiting for more students from my program to arrive,  I was extremely bored. I got to see a variety of people walking past me, and I thought "what do I have in common with them?". The only thing that truly stuck out in my mind was the similarities between the orthodox jews and me. I became a person who observes everything around me that day; I got to see orthodox families walking past me while I spent all of my time witnessing their actions. My perception of those families was swayed by their outer image and not by their inner beliefs that tie back to the same beliefs that I follow. When the time came to sit for 10 hours on the plane, I became more observant because that was my only option present. I noticed early in the morning, all of the orthodox men got up from their seats and migrated towards the bathrooms to put on their tefillin and pray. Even though their actions that come to play because of their beliefs are extreme, I can see a correlation between my lifestyle and theirs. All of the different types of Judaism that are available for a person nowadays, one would never guess to make the connection between orthodox and reformed. I think that we do have the same core beliefs, we do follow the teachings of the torah, and we do celebrate the same holidays. I am confident that my time in Israel will not only allow me to become more observant but it will also strengthen the parallels between reformed Judaism and other parts of Judaism.