Am I am a bad Jew if I eat bacon, don't go to temple very often, actually only on the major holidays? I do celebrate Passover. Religion just isn't a very big part of my American Jewish life. Please let me know, thanks!
I don't know.
I recently attended a lecture on parenting given by a renowned rabbi in Israel. An insight he gave relates to your question:
He spoke about teenagers. Teenage starts at 13 and ends at 20. The significance of these ages is that 13 is when a boy (or a girl at 12) becomes liable in a Jewish human court of law for transgressing commandments, but is not judged in the Heavenly court until age 20.
Why is the Heavenly court more lenient (i.e., judges at a later date)? Because the Heavenly court judges a person as a whole, and until 20 the person has not yet finished developing his personality. Here on earth, on the other hand, we can't judge people, we can only judge actions. As a teenager grows we can judge his actions, but not the person.
So, the question of whether you are "good" or "bad" is for God to decide. We can only speak about what you do, not who you are.
