Not them anymore, but us.

Hi there,

I have noticed lately that I do not say ‘them’ or ‘you’ anymore when talking about the Jews, I say ‘us’, ‘we’ and ‘I’. It’s wonderful. Below is what I wrote for ‘Our Congregation’, our community newsletter.

Beauty, Peace and Responsibility: Choosing a Life as a Jew.

I first entered BSS about one and a half years ago. After a long and rather painful quest I had finally found the right place. Not too long after that I met with Rabbi Altshuler and through his support and teaching I knew that my wonderful and exciting journey towards becoming a fully-fledged Jewess had formally begun.  Since then, I have made many new friends who have all asked me: ‘Why Judaism?’ I feel I have not yet given a proper response to this question. I would sum up my ever-growing love for Judaism with three words; beauty, peace and responsibility. In these words fit many, if not all, aspects of Judaism that touch me the most.

Judaism teaches us responsibility. While many faiths focus a great deal on the afterlife, the tragedy of the human condition that we are all born sinners, or that we are subjects in a rather chaotic world, Judaism emphasizes life above all, and is a true monotheistic religion. The consequences of this are that there is order and purpose in the world, instilled by a one and only omnipotent and omniscient God, making all human beings equal. We are not born sinners and we are not hopeless.  We cannot be redeemed through our belief in anyone but only through responsibility. We are each responsible for our own beings; how we decide to live our life and how we treat others. The notion that ‘we were made in God’s image’ suggest that the responsibilities are not there to constrain us but rather to enable us to know morality, to choose good from bad and to be ‘a light unto the nations’.

With taking responsibility comes peace. To me, Judaism is the religion of peace; inner peace and peace between people. The strong focus on peace within the family, community and with God moves me. For example, I know of no other faith that places such emphasis on the human responsibility to ask for and to grant forgiveness, in other words, the ability to make peace. This is how we celebrate our new year! We spend a seventh of our year being reminded that after ‘God saw what he had made and it was good…’ he rested.  So when we celebrate Shabbat we celebrate the goodness and wisdom of peace, and Shabbat is the most holy day of them all.

With peace comes beauty. To take the gift of Shabbat and share in its meaning when you stop and pull back from everyday duties and habits in order to take delight in your family, community, Torah and in nature is truly beautiful. Being able to see the beauty and the holy in the mundane is a deep value in Jewish thought. Once one can see the world a bit more through those eyes, oh how the very good will become almost overwhelmingly beautiful and precious.

So there it is, put briefly, the answer to your question. I choose Judaism because I believe that this is the most beautiful way to live one’s life.

Shalom and all the best,

Sara Elin

Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi

Ruth, probably the most famous convert to Judaism said to her mother-in-law, Naomi… “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

Update!

Hello again all,

It has been a busy few weeks. I have spent many hours in my ‘second home’, the Shul; Jewish history classes, political events, discussion groups and more. I started to do a little bit of volunteering too, and I have gotten to know a fantastic Jewish lady who is a close friend already and who makes me laugh so much.

I wrote a short article for our own ‘newsletter’ on my conversion experience and I was recently interviewed and included in the Jewish Chronicle as a case study. I am a little bit upset however on how they perhaps made me sound a little ‘defiant’ about converting my son. For example, they quoted me saying he will have a choice around the time of his Barmitzvah whether he wants to ‘renounce’ his Jewish status… Hm, I mentioned I had read that it used to be the practice with adopted children to Jewish parents, and it was taken out of context a bit and understood as if Elliot, our son, would be able to choose. To clarify, Elliot will be a Jew, period. Unless he converts to something else later on I guess. In my eyes he will forever be a Jew, from the day of mine and then his immersion in the Mikveh. I will upload what I wrote for our Shul here a bit later. I had a lot of very kind feedback on it which made me so happy! I was very self-conscious and slightly nervous about it. It is not always easy to be an adult new-born into strange world!

A Mikveh in South Israel dating to the time of the Second Temple around 70 CE.

I am still job hunting and it is taking up a lot of my time; I am struggling to squeeze in the Hebrew reading and more general reading. I miss it! I am finally able to follow the entire services (in Hebrew)  pretty much, and can even understand some of it which is so exciting for me. I can read the psalms too and I do sing along to them in my head, or sometimes silently. I still need to build up more confidence I guess to sing them out loud. I just don’t know how I will ever be able to chant Haftarah though,or anything like that? I would love to, I just can’t see that happening… It seems quite distant right now. I love the Sunday discussion group sessions I go to and even more so our Monday evening classes with the rabbi. We are currently learning Jewish history, and I am particularly enjoying the biblical history period. My rabbi is perfect for this as he has PhD on the topic! I am feeling I will miss this regular learning with the rabbi when I have completed the conversion. He will not ‘let me off the hook’ he says, he has ‘goals for me’ you see… But  as far as the regular classes go it will certainly be strange not to attend any longer, and very sad. And how could they stop?! there is so, so much more to learn!  I have been asked to help out with the synagogue services for the toddlers, so I guess I at least need to get that knowledge right, ha ha! Anyways, tomorrow morning is another discussion group class, and tomorrow evening a fundraising event with music I am very much looking forward too! Monday morning I will literally endulge myself in 3 hours or Jewish history. I love it! I just never tire of this stuff!

I hope you all had a lovely Shabbat. Shavua tov!

Love, Sara

Genesis

Wow, this is bad! How can I not be writing so much these days? It may well have something to do with the fact that I am just drowning in job applications. It’s all fun, but I am certainly missing writing on my blog. After a couple of weeks of hardly reading anything at all connected to Judaism I have in the last week or so indulged myself in words of Abraham Joshua Heschel, I finished The Sabbath (so poetic, important and beautiful) and have begun his book ‘The Prophets’ which I am loving. I am still working on the History of the Jews by Paul Johnson (very, very good but a lot of facts to take in, and I do want to remember at least a fraction of what I am reading) and I have finished a couple by Harold Kushner, ‘To Life!’ and ‘When Bad Things Happen to Good People’. Both of these were truly honest and inspirational.

As I have been reading these books, and assimilating the facts and concepts into my fresh and say, new-born self, my Jewish being, I do have a confession to make. Although I have been learning about the notion of ‘deed over creed’ in Jewish tradition, basically that Judaism emphasizes what one does (laws, community, life in the home etc.) over what one thinks, or believes (the theology), I am definitely finding myself spellbound by the learning about the Jewish concept of God, and also about humanity’s relationship to God; how and when it developed, their understanding, description and ‘fear’, or awe, of God and why this relationship is so important to how we see the world today. This includes plenty of philosophy and ethics, of course, which I love!

I am utterly fascinated by what I am learning. My interest in this has surprised, if not slightly shocked me. I have always thought that I am not a very religious person. Spiritual yes, I would say very much, but not religious. Lately though, my Rabbi and the reading that I have been doing,  have opened me up to a new way of thinking about it all. I believe that my struggle has always been the dichotomy between science and religion (although now I realise this must not be a dichotomy at all!). It is easier to agree with one and more or less discard the other, so in the past the decision was ‘easy’ for me, I choose the path of science. Or so I thought I did. Once you are in a particular ‘camp’ you cannot hear or see anything outside that particular framework and so when it came to the story of creation, for example, I simply failed to see it for what it really is; NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH EXPLAINING THE WAY OF THE WORLD IN SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE. If you want science, do not try and find it there.

The Torah goes at least a level deeper in terms of understanding the ways of the world, in particular; ‘the ways’ of people, of humanity. On top of that, by looking at it for what it actually is for the first time in my life, my eyes begin to water as I think of the revelation of thought that happened to that relatively small group of people, such a long time ago, which inspired the out-most ingenious ideas about humanity and its relationship to the universe. I am amazed in terms of their deep appreciation and understanding of humanity in society and culture, so different to the believe that was mainly ‘ruled’ by death – everywhere around them the people were spending their precious lives focusing on the inherent tragedy of human nature and ‘worshipping’ notions surrounding afterlife (e.g. Egypt and the mummies). But here appeared a people that I would like to sum up by a few words from the the book of Genesis (1:31) ‘and God saw all that He had made, and it was very good’. What a different take on the world right there! Up until now, human beings had been thought of as ‘tragic’, without hope and their purpose in life understood as humans merely being ‘slaves’ to powerful Gods controlling this chaotic world, and preparing for the world after death being a main focus rather than on the world in which they were living. What was it that ‘sparked’ and inspired this group of people to value life over all, and to believe in purpose, order and having a relationship with God rather than being ‘slaves’ or tragic. It cannot be explained in such terms that this was the better or easier option, or attitude, towards life. On the contrary, people now had huge responsibility, having laws imposed on them on how to behave properly. They were now understood as being created ‘in God’s image’.

Elliot, our son, insisted on lighting his homemade Hannukiah after Chanukah

I used to think of these biblical stories as largely fascinating and inspiring but not as truths about what it means to be human.  They are truly saying something fundamentally true about the make-up of the world, of the universe and most of all, of humanity. I used to almost laugh at the accounts provided in the Torah, or in my case, the Christian Bible. I very much struggled to take them on-board as saying anything very important. Intuitively I did however realise that of course there is something else, something special, to the history of this people and their incredible book, but I think that society and the rational and perhaps even more so the fearful me, blocked this intuition from coming in to full being within myself. I am pleased to say that I have now been invited in to re-examine these views I first harbored as a teenager, and as I am walking down the new, stimulationg and refreshing avenue, I think I may just stay a while to explore. There is plenty of hope in here.

Sara

I have a date!

… with the Bet Din in May! In 16 weeks I can go to the Shul on Shabbat as a fully newborn Jewess! I am so excited!

Happy new secular year to you all.

 

Love & Peace, Sara

To life!

Tonight in our class we got to talking about three common philosophies of life. Two of them are polarities and they are both extreme, and one of them is in the ‘middle’. Firstly we have the belief in a messiah and that only through him can we be delivered, free from sin, and become good. We are born sinners. In this belief system we focus on death, and afterlife, more than life itself. The other polarity, yet another extreme, is that we are all born ‘good’, and bad is to blame on the society. I want to ask then who or what rather is ‘the society’? Is the society not made up of me and you, and you, and you and so on…, of people! So ‘good’ people make a ‘bad’ society? I don’t buy it. Also, even if you do accept that it is indeed true that through or by society alone we can become ‘bad, which would be based on a ‘truth’ or laws instilled by that particular society, I just do not believe that this is a very healthy way of thinking, it is not a healthy view of human beings. We all have a choice, we can do/be ‘bad’ and we can do/be ‘good’. Ironically I would like to quote John Lennon here ‘Power to the people’!” to remind us that it is I, and you, and you, and YOU that make decisions about how we act, about what this world should look and be  like. But then who does define the rules of what is good and was is bad? This is why we have, and should have, laws, structure, governance, democracy and the whole lot… I don’t want to break the bubble, but no the notion of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is not just an opinion, and it is very dangerous to assume it is and even more so to think that is should be. Opinions, if not lived out and only part of your private sphere yes, perhaps…. But ultimately, if good and bad is not defined or ‘controlled’ by an all-embracing law, or morality rather, it does not just leave good and bad up to opinion, but will also be expressed through people’s actions. This can be a very dangerous business. Hitler had his opinion of ‘good’ too, and we tragically all know what those were… Oy.

Being responsible is the middle road, the notion of the dear sanctity of life. Blaming ‘society’ for our less fortunate actions, or on that we all are intrinsically bad anyway, I believe is not too healthy and is not helping one to get the most out of life. Let us have strength to really live our lives by taking responsibility for our own actions, by recognising our flaws, by moving on and most of all by celebrating and sharing the time we have been given in this beautiful world.

Cheers to life, let’s all go live it the best we possibly can.

Sara

Shavua Tov!

So I say ‘Shalom’ to yet another Shabbat. It is not quite with a tear in my eye, although I do feel sad as I ‘miss’ Shabbat, or more look forward to the next, during the working days. The (I want to call it experience of) Shabbat enriches me every week. This enrichment take various forms; inspiration and growth through learning when hearing the Rabbi’s sermon, witnessing (feeling) the love of parents as their Bar or Bat Mitzvah chant the Haphtarah, and being surrounded by dear friends. Perhaps most of all it is a time of peace with my own little family. Seeing the smile on our little boys face as he has some peaceful time with both mommy and daddy, there is nothing better. Watching him run around the Shul, totally comfortable and ‘talking’ to people. Hearing him sing or humming along to Adon Olam as the Rabbi waves to him from the Bimah.

Elliot on Rosh Hashanah (© Sara Elin)

I would like to recommend a book for Jews-by-choice. It is a book on conversion to liberal (conservative, reform and reconstructionist) Judaism called ‘Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends’  by Anita Diamant. I managed to read the whole book these past couple of days and I must say that I find it invaluable. Diamant is a pretty well-known Jewish writer whose husband is a Jew-by-choice. The book answers all the questions you want and possibly need to know about the more practical elements of the process, for example what exactly happens at the Mikvah and the Hatafat dam Brit. I learnt, for example, that I am not supposed to wear any contact lenses as I enter the Mikvah… Oh boy, me entering into the water will then be very fast as I will slip in or stumble on something on my descent! The book also talks more deeply about what it actually means to start the conversion process, like giving up Christmas (which some find very difficult, for me that part has not been difficult) and telling your parents the news, which can often be a huge challenge. Also, how about when I actually completed the process… and have become a Jew, then what? You now have to build your Jewish identity… The book has some stories of individual cases which are always comforting to read… hey we are certainly not alone!! It also provides a short history of conversion to Judaism. Regarding the more recent history of converts to Judaism I learnt that Liz Taylor was in fact a Jew-by-choice and that Marilyn Monroe also converted.

Finally, the Jewish Film Festival here in London has come and gone (last day tomorrow) and I only managed to catch one film, ‘the Rescuers’ by Michael King featuring Sir Martin Gilbert, the very well-known historian (mostly for his books on Winston Churchill). It was a documentary of the Righteous diplomats of the Shoah, the Holocaust. I was proud to once again be reminded just how many Swedish diplomats saved the lives of thousands of Jews as well as cooperating to rescue about 8000, just about everyone, of the Jews of Denmark. I learnt that other than the famous Wallenberg there were about another 10 Swedish diplomats working to save as many lives as they could. Swedish and Swiss diplomats were the most active. Although The Swedes somewhat ‘sided’ with the Germans I am happy they stayed officially neutral. Under the grip of the Nazis they would never have been able to save those thousands of people’s lives.

I can’t help but wonder… where were/are ‘the rescuers’ of Rwanda (the film mentioned this disaster too…), of Bosnia, or Darfur? Two of my absolutely dearest friends survived the genocide of Bosnia.  Bless the souls of all who were murdered there… If there were/are any heroic diplomats involved in those conflicts, I would like to know. Stephanie Nyombayire, who was also in the film, is doing research on the genocide of Rwanda. She had 100 family members murdered. Just…horrendous.  Keep an eye and ear out for that girl; she is young, bright and talented.  I am sure she will have a lot of important things to say about what happened in Rwanda one day!

Shavua Tov and Layla Tov to you all.

Sara

Learning is fun, fun, fun!

Yes, certainly if you enjoy what you are learning about. I am starting to think that I should perhaps have followed the intuitions I had when I was younger and now I would very likely be doing a PhD in Jewish Studies, Jewish History or in Cultural Anthropology focusing my thesis on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The numbers of books I have read/am reading on Israel, Jewish history, Judaism and the Jewish mind and ethics I would probably find it quite easy! Opening a book on the science of mind, i.e. psychology or neuroscience is now a struggle…

I am thrilled, but with a sort of lump in my stomach, that I have decided to join the Shul on the trip to Krakow/Auschwitz next April. All is booked! It will be such an important part of my conversion and Jewish experience. One member from our Shul who is an historian and an expert on the subject will be there to talk to us, amongst other fascinating encounters and events. In addition, our Rabbi will certainly be an interesting person to be going with too. I am very excited about the programme, at the same time anticipating the horror and sadness that I am almost certain I have never felt before. No matter the number of books that I have read about survivors from the Holocaust, or people that I have spoken to who were there… I just struggle to comprehend that something so horrendous have happened, and so recently. No doubt it will sink in this coming April, and I feel a great responsible as a citizen of humanity to be there as a witness to the atrocities that sadly took place.

Last Sunday I joined a group of people from the Shul on a trip to the one day Limmud event in Cambridge. It was both socially and intellectually very stimulating. I am not going to write in detail what the talks were on but I will give you a flavour. The first person I saw was the well-known writer and broadcaster Jonathan Freedland. He writes for both the Guardian and the Jewish Chronicle and unsurprisingly his talk was about what it is like to be on what he called the ‘narrow-bridge’ of being a firm supporter of Israel at the same time as being critical, in other words ‘a critical friend of Israel’. He talked about his personal experiences, some not very pleasant ones, of reporting on the conflict. The complexities of the complex were certainly highlighted! The second talk I went to was Clive Lawton, a known writer and ‘activist’ perhaps being one of the founders and current chairmen of Limmud. He talked about European Jewry and compared it so American and Israeli. He is an extremely good speaker, and I enjoyed it very much! He is a really eccentric character that I would encourage anyone who had an opportunity, to go and hear. The third person I saw was Simon Baron-Cohen. He is a psychologist who research empathy and is most known for his work on psychological models of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Being in the same field as him, I really admire Baron-Cohen for being able to stick to basics on a topic he knows so much about and so to be able to reach the wider audience. I don’t think many scientists have that skill! I could not talk about the brain the way he did. This guy absolutely got the biggest round of applause of them all, and he deserved it. The final talk I went to was Laliv Clenman, who focused on textual study and discussed how the Talmud talks about lineage (who is a Jew, who cannot be a Jew and so on). She is a lecturer in Rabbinic Literature at Leo Baeck College in London. This talk was definitely the most stimulating one for me. I love this stuff! Rabbinical school next? Ha ha… perhaps, who knows.

I was so touched to hear, at our Monday conversion class, that I have become an important member (although I am not yet technically a full member) in the community and that people miss me when I am not there. I feel so, so touched as the congregation means so much to me. I love coming to Shul, seeing my friends there, coming together in whatever is happening. I love listening to our wonderful Rabbi’s sermons, our Monday evening classes and all the rest of the learning events of the Shul, around the Jewish community and beyond.

Tomorrow we will be remembering Kristallnacht which happened on the 9 November 1938, 73 years ago. It will certainly be on my mind as I go about my business, in peace and the freedom that I have.

Love to them and you all.

Sara

Holy-day Indeed

Wow, busy times indeed. I have started my PhD now, as well as a part-time course in Classical Hebrew and it is keeping me busy enough. I wish in a way that I could just do my Jewish studies; reading a lot and writing, learning my Hebrew. I just love it so much!

The High Holydays have come and gone, and I do not know where to begin… All I can say is that I was deeply touched by all events; the scrutinizing self-reflections, striving for an inner change for the better, the davening, the music, the sermons, and most of all the people.

The holidays then culminated in my ‘favourite’ of them all, Simchat Torah. The day (Shemini Atzeret) as well as Erev Simchat Torah was truly beautiful, and to say the least very joyous! They did something in our Shul that I was told (although I am sceptical!) have never been done in this country before, they unrolled the entire scroll so as to roll it right back to the beginning, B’reishit. Aparantly, this is a common customary in the United States. The entire Shul joined in to help hold the scroll up (from underneath of course). I had been told by some people I was absolutely not to touch it, but someone in the congregation was sad to see me not joining in… so I touched the Torah! This was a very special moment. To see all these people, and to be one of them, getting together around the Torah made me think of the impact these words have had on the many generations of Jews throughout history. The way everyone so carefully and gracefully, with pride, held the handwritten scripture, so focused, to me symbolized the care, devotion, love and togetherness of the Jewish people. Torah is the one thing brought us all together, no different today than say, 2000 and more years ago. Our little boy enjoyed the holidays too, especially on Simchat Torah as he joined in the singing, dancing and chasing of balloons all around the Shul!

Now an entire month of no Jewish holiday at all, Cheshvan. Actually, I should not say that since the holiest festival of all, the Shabbat. This one happens every week, and is yet without a doubt the closest one to my heart.

Sara

Passion, Peace, Study, Growth and Spirituality

As I was sitting here at my desk earlier today I discovered something interesting about the banner I created for this blog. I was in deep thought, contemplating about the meaning of Yom Kippur and how I experience it. This will be the third time I participate in this holy day, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. I was almost in a meditative state as I was staring at the pictures in front of me: a gleaming, seemingly passionately lit and burning, Menorah; an image of peace for humanity, for all nature and for Israel; the third picture is a snippet of history, life, civilisation and the development that come with it; the last one to me symbolising the mystical, the spiritual, the unknown.

Before putting these images together, certainly at the point of picking them out, they just simply looked nice and made a nice banner for my first more serious blog. I was wrong. There was so much more to these pictures than pure appearance. I now realise that these images which had attracted me, spoke to me on a more deep and meaningful level. The parts of me that are my innermost representations of Judaism, at that point in time or perhaps forever are portrayed in those images somehow.

Judaism is, to me, a passion. This is in the sense of a personal connection. The best explanation I can provide is that Judaism touches places, or parts, of me that cannot be touched by anything else. In one way I am a true scientist, fascinated by evolutionary theory and the power of pure matter, in particular our brains (I am a cognitive neuroscientist in the making after all…). Yet, there is this side of me that cannot be touched by these hard and cold facts. I struggle with science in that it cannot provide me with satisfying enough answers; experts, books, articles or endless studies and discussions. In my view, it is not even close to a complete understanding of the great wonders of our universe. Thus, I struggle with science just as much as I struggle with G-d.

Secondly, Judaism is about peace. Not only in terms of the ‘magical’ no 7, the time of rest, but it is about peace with yourself, peace with others and with the world. We get this through introspection and forgiveness (respect), and openness and sharing with others. Although peace is one of the central concepts of Judaism, e.g., ‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore’ (Micah 4:3), this is not where I got my intuition. For me, it comes more from more indirect teachings in Judaism. For example, the emphasis on change and forgiveness (around the Jewish new year in particular), speaks more about how we can achieve peace. We need to learn to be tolerant and adaptable in this world. In order to learn this we must study and we must teach each other.  This process of learning, or I would like to say enlightening, is core to Jewish tradition. You will rarely meet anyone Jewish who is not intellectually curious as well as a stimulating partner in conversation.

Finally, to me, Judaism has a deeply mystical side too. Many cosmological issues are open to discussion in Judaism, e.g., What is the nature of G-d? Do you believe in heaven and hell? What is an angel, or are there any angels? In other words, there are many questions with no definite answer. I am very fascinated by this mystical side to Judaism. Being a Christian, for example, you should not really ask such questions about G-d. Growing up as atheist, G-d is simply a ridiculous contrivance of some sort. These ideas do not leave you much room for open and stimulating thought. I have an ultra-curious mind, and so I love this about Judaism. When I was a kid I had influences from many different directions; a religious grandmother, another ‘a-religious’ grandmother, questioning parents and many religious (from various backgrounds) as well as agnostic or atheist friends. Perhaps this concoction of ideas helped spark my curiosity for the unknown, as well as laid the path towards Judaism. Who knows?! It may well just have been who I was to start with, who have now settled down in her place. I am home!

Shanah Tovah!

Sara

!שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל

We had a really good session with the Rabbi yesterday. We are currently going through the Siddur (prayer book) as we are learning about the Shabbat service (at least how it works in our very special congregation). As much as I love learning history and facts I love the studying of the texts even more. Looking at the Hebrew with someone who really knows it and really ‘dissect’ every sentence, sometimes word by word brings out so many different philosophical questions, highly intellectually stimulating while also encouraging introspection and growth. Yes, it really moves me in a special way! We discussed the difference in prayer of the major religions, and I remember I picked this up early on in my life, certainly in comparing the way of prayer in Christianity versus Judaism. In Christianity the act of praying is very close to the actual meaning of the Latin word where it has its roots which means to ‘beg’ or to ‘ask’ for. The most common form of prayer in Christianity is basically asking G-d to fulfill ones needs. This is very different to the act of prayer in Judaism, which has more of an introspective theme involving ‘judgment’ of oneself, also including the need for community. In fact, the Hebrew word for prayer, ‘tefilah’, with its roots ‘pelel’ or ‘l’hitpallel’, means self-analysis or self-evaluation.

For observant Jews it is custom, as the Rabbi shared with us, to pray three times a day; Shacharit (morning prayer), Minchah (afternoon prayer) and Ma’ariv, or Arvit (evening prayer). It was mentioned though, that in Judaism there is a prayer for everything; when you are having a cup of tea, putting up a poster on the wall, taking a shower etc… ! Importantly and beautifully, there is only one act that must not be preceded by a prayer and it is the act of Tzedakah (giving ‘charity’, which is a Mitzvah, a commandment). The reason for this is that someone in need cannot wait for you to say a prayer! How beautiful is this concept, knowing the importance of Torah and the commandments to observant Jews. Helping others, acts of good deed and kindness, comes before!

Anyways, this brief note on prayer is all I have today. As we are nearly at the end of Deuteronomy now, I am very much looking forward to the High Holydays which ‘end’ (or are summed up perhaps?!) with one of my favorite ‘holydays’; Simchat Torah! I will tell you more about why this is one of my ‘favorites’ closer to the time. Yes, another thing, since the Rabbi ‘stole’ a thought of mine, a connection that I made, in preparation of his High Holydays sermons (he will talk about the meaning of change in Jewish tradition) I will have to hear every single one as I want to know how he is planning to put it in there (I do not have a problem with being there for every sermon, they’re such a source of inspiration!). I am looking forward to it! Certainly not as much as I am looking forward to the Holy Days themselves, my ego is just not quite that big!

Kol Tuv, and L’hitraot guys!