by Jodi Eichler-Levine
Editorial note: Professor Eichler-Levine has been a contributor to CrossCurrents as well as The Commons. When she posted this Twitter thread last year, we were beginning to assemble our special issue on “The Spirituality of Parenting” (September 2021), and thought that reposting the thread here would be a great complement to the special issue. We hope you enjoy the thread, and if interested in the topic, please check out the special issue.
My 9 year-old Theologian At Bedtime: A Thread
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
Scene: Bedtime.
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
KID: Go on and on about something so I can fall asleep.
ME: Ok. Have I told you about Jewish American History?
KID: I don't think so.
ME: Ok. So, in 1654, the first boat of Jews to arrive in what we now call the United States arrived from Recife, Brazil...
[... explanation of Sephardim, Inquisition, Shearith Israel]
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
ME: Then there was a Jewish woman named Abigail Franks. We know about her from letters to her family and from her family. [Explains some more]. So ultimately none of her descendants were Jews. https://t.co/5uaN2RxedV
KID: But wouldn't they be half Christian, half Jewish?
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
ME: Well, yes. And some people today DO practice multiple traditions. But some traditions go together better than others.
Somehow, reader, I end up explaining JuBus. https://t.co/F25WnQ16tZ
[We get back to the Jewish/Christian thing.]
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
[I explain the Trinity, resurrection, ascension].
KID: But what's the science behind that?
ME: Well.... you can't prove it with science. A lot of people would like to...
KID: I don't believe God is, like, a _being_ like at Hebrew School. I believe God is what's perfect and good and goodness. Just always good.
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
ME: [stops self from discussing Plato]. That's really nice.
KID: I believe in science.
ME: Well, science is not about "belief." ...
ME: Science is a method, and it's done by humans, and it keeps changing. There are times scientists were wrong.
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
KID: Like what?
ME: [unable to stop self]: Well, like about race. But that's a long story.
[Tells the story, but leaving out the eugenics and genocide because: bedtime]
ME: But belief is a different thing. And when people get older they learned about more nuanced beliefs and some people like science AND religion.
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
KID: I think it doesn't matter what people believe. People are the same.
ME: [starts explaining cultural difference.]
ME: Going back to Christianity and Judaism... [somehow I get onto messianism]. So, I personally don't think the messianic age is about a person. I think it's something people build through how they care for each other through the divine. That by doing that we get... better
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
KID: I don't think that's going to happen.
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
ME: [Internally weeps, because I don't, either]. Well, ideas about God are about seeing beauty in imperfection. We keep trying anyway.
KID: People should just believe what they want and not judge other people for their beliefs.
That, my friends, is Torah. All the rest is commentary.
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
PS When I explained Jesus and how the idea of a god loving humans so much they wanted to suffer was quite beautiful, she said: "That's like if a rich person wanted to know what it was like to be poor and suffer."
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
ME: Have I told you about the life of the Buddha? ....
This has been: My 9 Year Old Theologian, aka, "What Happens When Your Mom is a Religious Studies Professor" or "How to Avoid Bedtime: A Master Class." /thread
— Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine (@jeichlerlevine) September 17, 2020
All work at The Commons is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Jodi Eichler-Levine
Jodi Eichler-Levine is the Berman Professor of Jewish Civilization and associate professor of religion studies at Lehigh University. She is the author of Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community, as well as other popular and scholarly writing on what it means to be human on our fragile blue marble.
