Q&A: What Does It Mean to Be a Jew Who Does the Will of God?
What Does It Mean to Be a Jew Who Does the Will of God?
Question
If an atheist Jew from an atheist family that never did anything connected to Judaism comes along and says he wants to do what his Creator wants from him, then they’ll tell him to keep the commandments. So after a year to several years of studying and gradually observing the commandments, he “gets into the routine” of keeping them—and now what, exactly? Is that the whole story? Is there somewhere further to go?
Answer
I don’t understand the question. He can continue advancing in studying, understanding, and observing the Torah his entire life with no problem. Even someone born into a religious framework should not feel that he has exhausted it, all the more so someone who only arrived there recently.
Beyond that, he can continue developing as a person alongside his spiritual and religious growth, on every level: social, moral, intellectual, and more, just as he did beforehand.
It seems like a strange question to me.