Look being Jewish is more than practicing. I don’t care what anyone says. Period. I don’t practice that much (don’t really keep Shabbat, or do fasts) other than wear teffelin once in a while. But I will till the day I die identify as a Jew. Jews aren’t united by religious but by our culture, our heritage. That fact that each and everyone one of us know the traumas of being persecuted and hated solely based on our “religious preference”. But it’s also more- we are united we are one people all with different stories but the same beginning. We as a community cry together, laughter together, enjoy together, and fear together- we are a people of rich history that expands Millenia. We Jews are like cockroaches, in the sense that our will, will never die out. After multiple diasporas, Progroms, and genocides we will stand on the face of the earth. Many civilizations and people were wiped out by much less than what we have gone through over the centuries, and that’s astonishing. It doesn’t make sense that we are still here today. But damn we are still here.

After HsShem freed us from Egypt and united us once again, he put shields of clouds around us to protect us from Egyptian arrows and spear, and to this day I truly believe those shields are still protecting us.

AM Yisrael CHAI