If people ask me how I define myself, I say I’m Jewish. Orthodox Jewish. This means observing the holidays, the Sabbath, the dietary laws and rules far too numerous to mention here. People also assume that it means blind acceptance of what I’ve learned and that I adhere to the strict interpretation of the Torah. After all, that’s what "orthodox" means.

But this isn’t true, at least not in my case. It wasn’t—and still isn’t—the idea of evolution, or the age of the universe that gave me pause. A constant phrase we hear from Jewish commentators is that the Torah isn’t a history book. It's more of a doctrine, which is the meaning of “Torah.” For me, it means that and more. It describes how we see God, and how we relate to Him.