Date archive for August, 2011
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God Was on the Brown Line and I, I Did Not Know
One year ago today, I got on the Chicago ‘L’ feeling spiritually homeless and got off knowing I would spend the rest of my life living Jewishly. God’s whisper comes in many forms. For me, it came on the Brown Line.
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Shake Hands with Whose Uncle Max?
All Jewish converts face the challenge of fitting into Judaism and into a Jewish community. But how do you find your comfort zone in a sanctuary echoing with the sounds of chanted Hebrew, and full of people with last names and lifetime experiences different than yours? You do, with practice. And time.
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Getting to the Point with the Yetzer Hara
If life were always perfect, why would God bother to put us here? A meditation on the need for the Yetzer Hara–Judaism’s ‘evil inclination’ that makes the world go ’round.
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Jewish with the Drawbridge Pulled Up
There’s a right way and a wrong way for Jewish institutions to welcome visitors. The moment the balance between security and openness starts to close an institution off from the wider community is the moment it gets harder to repair the world.
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One Fewer Online Community for Converts
It was fun while it lasted. It imploded unexpectedly. A sudden farewell to the now-defunct JewsByChoice.org.
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When a Reform Jew Lays Tefillin
In theory, Reform Jews can follow any commandment by which they feel moved. But some traditional practices move few Reform Jews. Praying every morning with tefillin is usually one of those practices. Here’s why it moves me–and why that’s just fine.
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Life, the Universe, and Everything Jewish: Six Years of Chicago Carless
Three months after officially joining the Jewish people, things make sense in a way I never expected. Some say Jewish converts are born with a Jewish spark waiting to be realized. Now I realize how the past six years of my blog–and the past 41 years of my life–have led me to my Jewish self.
