What makes you Jewish?

January 14, 2009 at 10:56 pm (Jewish)
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What makes you Jewish?

Are you Jewish if you think you are? If others think you are? If your enemies think you are? Your friends? If I think I am Jewish and I Jew well, does that make me Jewish?

I converted to Judaism 14 years ago. It may have taken a good 6 years before I felt Jewish. Was I Jewish before that?

 I know several women who have a Jewish household, raise their children Jewish, attend synagogue and except for the fact that they were not born Jewish and did not convert are more Jewish behaving then their husbands in every way. Are they Jewish?

If you were born Jewish and you live in the assimiliated world and do not practice  or recognize your Judaism are you Jewish? The Nazis determined that if you were 1/16th Jewish you were Jewish. So if your great grandfather was Jewish you are.

If you grew up in another faith and converted into Judaism in the Reform or Conservative movement are you Jewish? The Orthodox and Hasidic movements have decided that you are not Jewish if you did not convert by one of their own.

Does it matter what other people think? Are you Jewish if you think you are?

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Being Jewish: A Story

November 13, 2008 at 10:34 pm (Uncategorized)
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What makes you Jewish? I think I have asked this one before.

I converted throught the Reform movement. We did all of the halachic requirements. I have continued to study, learn, particpate and do Jewish things. However, many a time I have had “Jewish” people tell me that because I did not do this with an Orthodox rabbi I am not a Jew.

Yesterday I went to a class in Boston that was talking about Jewish conversion from the Biblical, Talmudic and halachic perspectives. It did seem that I have done what is needed.

Here is a story of the Boston Rebbe. I have never met him. I have his phone number and have seen his family lineage. However, my brother in-law was visting. He is a Yeminite Israeli Jew. He is what the American Ashkenazis might call a modern Orthodox person however those labels just do not fit the Yeminite community. On his way back to Israel he sat in his seat and the Rebbe of Boston sat next to him. They were chatting and my brother in-law was describing his visit and describing me. Who knows why? Maybe they were trying to do Jewish geography and then they came to me. Well, the Rebbe was sufficiently impressed that he told my brother in-law to have me call so that he could convert me to Judaism.

Huh? Aren’t I already Jewish? Didn’t I already have the tough path to sow? I did not stand at Sinai and see the smoke and fire and hear the thunderous roar as described in the Bible. Should I get circumcised again because the Rebbe has a hate on the Reform rabbis? Should I have another beit din? Should I have another immersion in the mikvah? Or is all I need the blessing of someone with the right pedigree?

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Shir Tikva: What could it be?

June 29, 2008 at 9:34 pm (Uncategorized)
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What is the purpose of a synagogue? What is the purpose of a temple community? What does it mean to be reform? Does the old format work in today’s world? Should their be committees to determine general programming in the community? I wonder about this?

It seems to me that it is time to change the way the temple community is formed. It should not be looked at as a big cohesive community anymore. The community should look to differentiate itself out side and in. The community should be composed of smaller groups that all aspire to build community and highlight its unique characters. Rabbi Zalman Schechter Shalomi describes the worlds religions as organs in a body. Each organ is unique and important to the survival of the whole. However, each organ has its defined purpose and differences that are unique and effective. I like this idea and would like to apply it to the synagogue.

Why have one service for each occasion? Why have the one “appropriate” Shabbat service? Why not encourage the community to renew and aspire for meaning and to do Judaism with intention. Why not have teens create Friday night service where they go somewhere, to someone’s house or out in the woods and lead an alternative minyan. Why not have a Shabbat service that focuses on a different experience, a meal, music, wine, comfortable pillows, big chairs, candle lights, royal fabrics, hanging out , talking, singing, Song of Song jams (like poetry jams) — make it like a wedding — make it a place that people want to hang out.

For the high holidays have a family service and then have an experimental service that performs things in a much more traditional, ethnic or mystical way. Move people out of their comfort zone. Do something that challenges and expands the spiritual.

Have meditation classes. Wrap the tefilin. Wrap the prayer shawls. Put on the tzit tzit. Push practice and explore.

The community can be all inclusive allowing everyone to find their own thing but it does not need to be the same thing. It should be different. It should be exciting. It should have the regular things. It should have a distinctive feel, one where everyone is welcome where they are but allowed to move in any direction they like.

We should have a goal that every member attend something during the year outside of HIgh Holidays at least once. Something for everyone done by everyone. We should have the range of people who identify as Jewish and participate communally to those who want to practice and learn more and dive deeper. Let’s reform this Reform and bring the most to every individual where ever they are.

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Pluralism: A Historical Perspective

June 26, 2008 at 10:40 pm (Uncategorized)
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It is interesting because we are having a discussion at my temple about
Jewish Pluralism with a representative from the Orthodox, Conservative
and Reform movements. The beginnings of Orthodoxy and Reform come from
the same place with very different responses. Jews of Europe were
separate autonomous states within states until the French Revolution.
These autonomous states are what I would call traditional. The French
revolution had an almost complete rejection of the idea of separate
communities and religion as a whole. So there was a big issue of what
to do with the Jews. The Reform response was to become part of the
intellectual elite and reject all forms of traditionalism that did not
have to do with the core of Judaism that was said to be ethics. (This
was a response to the French elitists that said that Judaism was a
superstitious and out of touch religion that had nothing to do with
logic or ethics.) The Reformers decided to recast in that light.

The
Orthodox were appalled with the “throwing the baby out with the bath
water” approach. They wanted to keep as much of traditional Judaism as
was possible. Aspects of traditional Judaism focused heavily on the
post temple reforms where sacrifice could not be done. So how did you
do that in the world without a temple? Keeping the identification of
the ritually pure and profane was a significant aspect of religious
life. Rules were created to elevate standard Rabbinical practice such
as writing the Torah into a ritually pure act. For counter example, in
the temple it was ritually impure to enter the temple after a sacrifice
covered in blood. The priest would have to bathe first.

I
think it is a great challenge for Reform Jews to even come close to
understanding what the Orthodox are bemoaning because so little in
Reform Judaism outside of intellectual arguments is consider holy or
ritually pure (this is what they rejected).

So where is your temple? What does your community hold holy? Ethics? Traditional interpretations of Torah and Talmud? Will the reform movement be able to get out of its own historical way and embrace more traditional aspects of Judasim? Will Orthodox be able to accept Reform Jews? How many more variations of Judaism will we create? Is the Jewish community destined to be like the Christian community with many different approaches where some get along and some don’t believe the other is legit? Does inter-religious pluralism matter?

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Orthodoxy of Jewish Commitment

June 8, 2008 at 9:36 am (Uncategorized)
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Orthodoxy of Jewish Commitment – not Orthodoxy of traditionalism and routine

I wanted to deconstruct orthodoxy in Judaism. I would like to refer to those who would like to be traditionalists as “frum.” The original definition of Orthodox was created in Germany as a response to modernism and the loss of the separate autonomous Jewish communities. Hertzl did not want to change like reform, nor did he like the position of conservative. Hertzl wanted to maintain many of the traditional practices of Judaism as well as live in the “modern” world. With that he created the movement called “Orthodox.”

“Orthodox” has been confused with religious. This confusion leads to Reform and Conservative Jews to say they are not religious because they are not “Orthodox.” What about the Orthodox gives them the power to hold the position of most religious? Is this because they have an elitist position or that they have become idolotrists of their ritual and tradition? What makes a Reform or Conservative Jew who practices and wrestles with Judaism any less religious or orthodox in his commitment?

I think that every Jew should practice what they can, where they are and with focused intention. Be where you are and enjoy the aspects of Judaism that help you to be a better person, to be more mindful, to be more learned, and to be more in tuned with the other. Make a commitment to yourself. Be Jewish.

As this commitment grows in all Jews, we will all recognize the spirituality in ourselves. We all will be able to identify as religious and the frum will be joined by an Orthodoxy of Commitment by all Jews.

Inspired by an article by S. Daniel Breslauer “Toward a Theory of Covenant for Contemporary Jews“

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