Adventures in Judaism

So it's time for the second in my series of things-I've-learned-about-being-Jewish, which I'm writing in summation of this two-year conversion journey, in preparation for my Bet Din, and as a way of getting thoughts clear in my head as I contemplate writing a book on my Journey Into Judaism. Last time, as you recall, I wrote about the Jewish relationship with belief. One of my rabbis suggested that I look into 12th-century  Rabbi  Moses ben Maimon's (aka Maimonides or "the Rambam")  thirteen principles of Jewish faith (see a nice article on these principles by the excellent Jewish educators of My Jewish Learning at  http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-thirteen-principles-of-faith/  ). I had three thoughts about this: First: is there anything Maimonides didn't do? The man was a court physician, rabbi, scholar-philosopher, and writer of myriad books and commentaries that have stood the test of centuries – he gives me quite an inferiority comp...

As I near the end of my two years of "becoming Jewish," I am also coming up on probably the most consequential oral exam since my dissertation defense: my interview with the Bet Din. And to feel a bit more prepared for that interview, I thought I would write a series of blog posts summing up what I have learned about Jews, Judaism, and how-to-be-Jewish over the past couple of years -- and invite my rabbis and the rest of my Jewish community to chip in their thoughts (and give my thoughts a nudge in the right direction as need be). So, without further ado, I start with one of the things that attracted me to Judaism in the first place: the sh'ma, and what it says about Judaism as a belief system… – – – One of the things that always drove me crazy about trying to be a good Christian was the statements-of-faith. Many of the churches I have been a part of have weaved one or another of these creeds or confessions into their worship lives, for example asking worship...