Do you have to believe in God to be Jewish? 
I can’t tell you how often I discuss this question with children and adults.  “Tell me about the God you don’t believe in,”  I often respond.  Most people, it will not surprise you, do not believe in a God who looks like an old man sitting up in the sky pulling strings.  But do you believe that there is a source of ultimate goodness in the world?  Do you believe that everything happens for a reason?  Do you believe that at the end of the day you simply die or is there something more?  These are the questions we struggle with.
 
This week in the Torah we read about our father Jacob dreaming in the desert.  He wrestles with an angel.  When morning light comes the angel tries to leave.  Jacob demands that the angel bless him.  The angel says that he will change Jacob’s name to “Israel,” meaning “one who wrestles with God.” 
 
In our Comparative Religion class we teach our children that the fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity is one of beliefs verses actions.  In Christianity the most important thing is to believe in Jesus as the human representative of God.  In Judaism the most important thing is to observe the mitzvot – the commandments which instruct us how to live a good life.  As a Jew you may struggle with the idea of God and that is OK.  That is what the people of Israel are about – we are people who wrestle with God.  This is who Jacob was, and who he became, a man who started off his life with great deceit and in turn was deceived himself.  He literally gave birth to the tribes of Israel.  Though he struggled with God, he ensured the survival of the Jewish people.