My Search to Understand Why Traditions Are Practiced

Wanting to Understand the Why

I definitely didn’t want to do things just to do them—like we had with the prayer shawl. I needed to know why. If I was going to adopt new practices, I didn’t want it to be based on feelings or group behavior. I wanted to understand the meaning and biblical foundation behind each one.

Especially as I began sharing with family that we were attending a Messianic synagogue, not everyone was thrilled. Some were confused. Others didn’t understand. I thought of 1 Peter 3:15 and its reminder to be prepared to give a reason for the hope within us, with gentleness and respect. That hit home. I realized I still had so many questions—and how could I explain our journey if I didn’t understand it myself?

Learning What I Was Participating In

At that point, many of the faith traditions I was encountering were still unfamiliar. The pinky held in the air, the Torah scroll being carried around for people to touch, and the blessings read from a little black book I hadn’t seen before—all of it was new and a bit overwhelming. I started doing some of it, honestly, out of respect and not wanting to seem rude. But I couldn’t explain what I was doing—or why.

Who wrote the siddur, that little black prayer book? Why were certain blessings chosen for the service? What was the meaning behind each action we participated in? I later learned that the siddur was not written by one person. Its prayers and order developed over centuries, drawing from Scripture and Jewish tradition.

Building My Why List

So I started what I now call my why list. During services, I began taking notes on my phone—every time something came up that I didn’t understand, I’d jot it down. From the beginning to the end of the service, I started compiling questions: traditions, Hebrew words, phrases, guest speaker teachings—anything that raised curiosity.

It wasn’t a huge list at first, but it grew. And as it grew, so did my hunger to search the Scriptures and find the roots and reasons behind these practices.

I wasn’t afraid to follow—I just didn’t want to follow blindly. God was inviting me into something deeper, and it began with one simple question: Why?

Have you ever participated in a faith tradition without knowing why? What helped you start asking questions?

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