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religion Q for those who are Jewish by Choice
I am trying to find my religious self.
What were your reason(s) for converting ?
What books helped you on your 'journey'.?
f.k.a.= Derniermot
Re: religion Q for those who are Jewish by Choice
I made a concious choice to follow the faith. For me, it felt like home. I find it very thought provoking and I like the fact that we are to think about, question, challenge the writings. I like that we are to read what others have thought about the Torah, to see how thinking has changed over the centuries.
It makes sense to me. I like the Jewish tradition that when you die, God asks you "Were you honest?" and then "Were you kind?" You have to be both, not just one. It helps me sort through how to behave on a daily basis. There are a lot of good books to read, but one that might help you is "Jewish Wisdom" by Joseph Telushkin. It's on my bedside table shelf; sheds a lot of insight into a remarkable amount of Jewish thought.
That' a heavy question. I'll ditto sue's first paragraph. It just makes sense to me. There's not really any suspension of belief involved; there's no real dogma you must accept to be Jewish, other than there is only one god, and the nature of god is unknown, which allows me to take into account quantum theory to "understand" god. It's a 'thinking' religion. In fact, Jews are known as 'the people of the book'. Everything has a reasonable interpretation, although NO ONE claims to have all the answers. In fact, Jews have been arguing over interpretation for thousands of years. Take Shabbot, for example. From a very practical standpoint, everyone deserves a day off for leisure, for reflection, to spend with your family. We are not here just to work, work, work. It is a blessing to keep Shabbot, but it's not meant to be punitive. It's a joyous thing. Most of of the 613 commandments are really about how to treat yourself and others. There's commandments on how to deal in business, how to treat orphans and widows, how to fairly lend money - overall just fair 'rules' that if everyone followed would make the world a better place. But Jews don't try to push their 'rules' on others; we are encouraged to live by example - be a 'light unto other nations'. And if you fail to keep the commandments, you are not considered a sinner condemned to hell. Jews don't even believe in hell. You're just 'further from god' - which means what? I don't know. That's open for interpretation.
Other highlights: The concept of original sin is rejected, and sex with your spouse is seen as a blessing, particularly on Shabbot.
I converted 6 years ago and can't remember what books I found helpful (they were destroyed in a basement flood.). I took an intro to Judaism class through my temple; I'd highly recommend that, and you're not expected to convert afterwards (although most temples do make it mandatory before they'll convert you.).
Please note that I'm reform, which is the most liberal and secular branch of Judaism. I'm always afraid MrsALJ or Shoshie (who I haven't seen in a while
) will come in and blow me out of the water - lol!
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
I am a Jew by Choice, technically. However, my immediate family is more accurately described as Jews who have returned to Judaism. Because there is no formal ritual to mark a return, we all went through a formal conversion process.
About 10 years ago, we discovered through diaries, letters, and some other papers that my mother's grandmother was Jewish. She had hidden her Jewishness as a child under Catholicism.
On my mother's mother's mother's side of the family, we are decendents of anusim. They actually originated in Lithuania and migrated to Spain some time well before the 15th century. During the Inquisition, the family chose to "convert". They were never fully Catholic and maintained their Jewish identity and practices for generations. Of course, things became diluted over time, but there was no doubt to my mother or my grandmother that the kind of Catholics they were were not the kind of Catholics everyone else was.
About 6 years after we discovered this information and my mom and sister both feeling like Judaism was home to them, a formal conversion was what made perfect sense. My father was extremely supportive, but as an atheist he had other things to wrestle with.
During that same time, he and my mother were traveling to Portland a lot (my father was doing a lot of business out there). My mother wanted to visit a Sephardic congregation and she found one. They visited and hit it off with the rabbi and the rabbi's wife. It was an Orthodox congregation so the men and women were separated during services and study. My mother was speaking with the rebbetizin and in getting to know one another, they found that both my dad and the rabbi had similar roots. The rabbi's father was born in San Antonio, son of a Mexican immigrant. He was one of nine. My father's father was also one of nine from SA, son of a Mexican immigrant. The rabbi's father had joined the army as had my grandpa, but everyone was either drafted or joined up during WWII. After the Army, the rabbi's father went to Panama. My mother told the rabbi's wife that my dad's uncle had gone to Panama about that time and what were their names. The wife told my mom who they were and my mom just about fainted. It turns out that the rabbi's father and my grandfather were brothers. Not only that, but my father's grandparents were also conversos.
Not long after that experience, my father decided to covert. I followed suit about a year later.
Now, we grew up knowing no specific religion. My parents rejected Catholicism early on. They taught us to be good people but during hard times in their lives you could tell they were searching for a spiritual community and home.
At 19, I went through an extremely difficult experience. Shortly after that time I decided to give my life to Christ and was saved. That lasted in good effort about 2 years and it would be another 3.5 before I decided it never fit and I formally returned to Judaism.
Anyway, there are so many more details to this story but that's about has brief as I could make it and it still makes sense.
I am married to a Jew-by-birth, from Brooklyn no less. It's been really amazing to learn about my family's history and to feel like I have an identity. It's also kind of fun to be a Mexican-American Jew.
MrsALJ - that's fascinating! We actually learned about the Catholic Jews in my intro to Judaism class and how many returned once they discovered their roots.
I also did the born again thing in high school. I joined the Bible Club, and one day my mom asked what club I went to and I felt embarrassed and told her Drama Club. That's when I realized Christianity didn't fit me.
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
Thank you!
I am not ready yet to take classes. I want to try to experience things for a year and then if it still feels okay/right maybe then take the classes. For ex: I did not celebrate xmas this year. I tagged along to a baby naming ceremony and I am going to a Sedar dinner on Friday, fasted for YomKippur, etc.
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
There are fees for various classes, but not for Torah study. And seriously, any temple would waive a class fee for you if you could not afford it. Enjoy your sedar this Friday!
I really encourage you to do some reading (the Telushkin stuff is easy to read, and fascinating). Attending the rituals is interesting, but left me kind of feeling 'out of it' before I understood something of the history and meaning of the rituals I was watching.
This was a great thread. Thanks for sharing your stories!
I'm a (conservative) Jew by birth by and agnostic by practice. I still call myself Jewish, though- but very I'm now very Reform. I'm married to a Catholic but will be raising our daughter (and any subsequent children) in Reform Judaism.