For the next year, My Secret is Mine newsletter will be centered on the autobiography of Dr. Edith Stein, Life in a Jewish Family. Canonized in 1998, she is now known by her Carmelite name of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, co-patroness of Europe. Many apostolates today have St. Teresa as their patroness, including My Secret is Mine. This series will explore the Jewish roots of the Catholic faith found in the Old Testament and Magisterial teachings. All the My Secret is Mine content will explore the themes of conversion, family relationships, and Jewish heritage in the life of Edith Stein.

In the second chapter of Life in a Jewish Family, there are three sections and school is the topic of two of them. School looms very large in Edith’s world. Although her large Jewish family was important to her, her academic accomplishments were the steady drumbeat of her life. Edith says, “During our childhood, school played an important role. I almost believe I felt more at home there than in our house.”

Edith begins the chapter, “The World as the Two Youngest Knew It,” by talking about the distant future, when both Edith and Erna had already earned college degrees with distinction. Erna would become an obstetrician/gynecologist with the encouragement of her Uncle David Courant (a pharmacist), and Edith a noted philosopher. Both of these career paths for women were unheard of prior to the 20^th century. University attendance in Germany was opened to women region by region, starting in 1900 and fully open by 1909, the year Edith turned eighteen.

In the third section of the chapter, Edith shares more details of her early childhood. After her father’s untimely death, her older sisters Else, Frieda, and Rosa essentially took on a motherly role with the two youngest. Precocious in intellect and frail in health, her family seems to have doted on Edith. She recounts several stories in which it is clear that her behavior was often challenging. Her closest sister, Erna, had an entirely different personality, “as transparent as cool water,” whereas Edith was said to be, “a book sealed with seven seals.” Both girls excelled at school.

This chapter contains the only detailed section on the Jewish faith in the entire book. Edith recounts her childhood experiences of the Passover Seder (Pesach) and the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Edith’s mother always believed that there was something special about Edith’s having been born on Yom Kippur. On that “day of atonement,” the Jewish people asked God and one another for forgiveness of any faults. Edith remembers meeting her mother at the synagogue, dressed in her finest clothes.

It gives one pause to consider how the children in the Stein family approached these feasts, for Edith recalls that she and Erna looked forward to the Passover Seder—not for its religious significance, but because it was an exciting change of pace from the usual routine. They welcomed the rituals and different dishes. In fact, during the Seder, the youngest child has a special role. In Edith’s family, as the youngest child, she was expected to ask these four questions:

• Eating Matzah: “On all other nights we eat bread or matzah. Why on this night do we eat only matzah?”
• Eating Maror (Bitter Herbs): “On all other nights we eat many kinds of vegetables. Why on this night do we eat only bitter herbs?”
• Dipping Foods: “On all other nights we do not dip our vegetables even once. Why on this night do we dip them twice?”
• Reclining: “On all other nights we eat either sitting upright or reclining. Why on this night do we all recline?” [is that really the question?][KM1]

The answers to these questions introduce the maggid, in which the family recalls the story of the Jewish people escaping from slavery in Egypt by the hand of the Lord God of Hosts. When writing this memoir, Edith had been a Catholic convert for a dozen years. She is often quick to point out the similarities between the Passover Seder and the Eucharistic liturgy found in the Catholic Church.

Edith wrote the book to show the merits and strengths of her German, Jewish family. While her mother, Auguste, was an extraordinary mother and an observant Jew, Edith perceived that her siblings practiced the faith in honor of their mother, rather than from personal devotion. Edith’s niece, Susanne Batzdorff, has written a book

Interestingly, Edith does not discuss in detail one of the most important parts of the Jewish faith, the weekly Sabbath observance (Shabbat). Her married brothers did visit the family after having eaten at home, and later she makes passing references to the care packages of challah that she received while in Göttingen, with the understanding that it was to be used accordingly.Perhaps she took Shabbat for granted, but the amount of work that the larger celebrations required occasioned resistance from the older siblings in charge of household tasks. In any case, it appears they honored their mother’s reverence.

It is notable also that, as adults, both Erna and Edith were the most religiously serious adults in their family. Erna married a man with a strong Jewish faith, Hans Biberstein, who became the de facto religious head of the entire Stein household after their marriage in 1920. Edith, by contrast, embraced the Catholic faith in 1922, which led to a devastating decision to enter religious life. (Rosa would follow Edith to the cloister after Auguste Stein died in 1936.) In a sense, Edith and Erna carried on the religious convictions of their mother, each in her own way.

So, while their scholastic achievements overshadowed the religious practices for most of the children of this household, religion prevailed ultimately, with the last two. Their mother couldn’t appreciate the path marked out for the youngest, and yet her reverence for Day of Atonement would indeed profoundly mark out the path for Sr. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein’s Carmelite name) in the end. And for her fidelity to that call within a call, we can be truly grateful.

[KM1]Yes. In ancient days, free men ate reclined on pillows, while the salves ate on the ground.