My kids just walked in the door.  The boys are laughing and retelling stories of their afternoon and laughing some more.  As they grab something to eat, they both agree that they love to go to Religious School.  Assembly was so much fun this week, they tell me.  The Rabbi is hysterical.

Jewish education is part of developing a strong Jewish identity.  I was always uncertain about how the kids would respond to what seemed to me to be “extra” school.  But the Educator does a great job making it fun for everyone.  This is great, because our belief is that unless you are sick, you are going to Religious School.  My husband and I do not generally let the kids miss for social events.

The problem is soccer, which is almost religion in our household.  Our kids play soccer every single day, even in the snow.  They kick the ball in the house, in spite of the fact that I tell them not to kick the ball in the house.  Last winter, our middle son started to play on the local travel team.  The travel team uses fields that are not available on Saturday mornings, so games are generally played on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings.

Can you guess what the conflict is?  Do we as good Jewish parents let our kids miss Religious School to play soccer?  Do we let the one kid who would die on the sword for soccer miss occasionally to do the one thing he truly loves? As the schedules were being determined for the soccer season, we request no practice on Wednesday.  We ask for no games on Sunday mornings.  But this isn’t always feasible.

We agree that it is important for the kids to develop a strong Jewish foundation and going to Religious School is part of creating a Jewish identity, it is also important to consider the whole child.  Right now my kids like to go to Religious School.  They understand the importance of going.  We recognize that “making” them go when they might want to do something else could cause resentment.

Granted it is a slippery slope: miss a day for soccer and another for a play date, what if soccer practices conflict with Wednesday Religious School, everyone is too tired from the week, when does it stop?  We walk a fine line maintaining the importance of obtaining a religious education/identity and living our lives in modern society.  We work hard to keep that balance for our kids.  This Sunday, while our youngest and oldest are in Religious School, our soccer player will be on the soccer pitch stopping goals.  (He promised to study his Hebrew extra hard this week and to get the assignments he will miss so that he will be prepared.)