Dunking Rachael: March 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

That Time of Year!

Hope you all are well....for those of us trying to "get it right" the count down is on!...I have started cleaning and eating down the food stocks...but I must admit I am concerned on a number of fronts...Yes, the usual convert lament about all and any holidays, but this year we have two....yes two more issues to throw into the proverbial kosher for passover stew....

We are trying to sell our house...and hardly no family to celebrate with....

First the house...

We completed the year of mourning for my husband's mother this January and about a month or so later sold her home, my husband's childhood home....So with that we have purchased the home of our dreams, on the water in the town in which we live...one problem...we already have the house we currently live in!

So for the past month we have been trying to get rid of this house! The real estate lady keeps telling me "keep your house neutral!".. meaning make it so anyone can see themselves in it. Well this is impossible once I start the great change over. I'm a busy working person and have little time, so I start moving the passover storage boxes within a two week time of the actual holiday. But this year I need to be quicker...and more organized. This is a very tall order! So this year I think I'm going to try some sort of plastic covering for my porous surfaces...(note to self...when redoing the kitchen in the new house... solid stone!)

Buy my house!...It is in our local Eruv!

So the no family issue makes me sad. My daughter moved across the country to the youth alternative living city of Portland! (any of you see the mini comedic series protlandia?...) My husband's youngest is studying abroad and the oldest is staying put in Boston. With the exception of my husband's brother a secular Jew, and his partner a lovely man from Japan, my husband has no relative in the area and hardly any relatives anywhere!

So in an effort to get a seder that I can enjoy preparing, I have decided to focus on a second night gathering. A lot of folks who are not religious will do a first night but not second...so I can do a mitzvha and have a second night seder for me and invite folks who would more than likely be done with the passover stuff. This is coming along....I have 9 folks including our selves so far and am still waiting on a few others. ....

But what to do about the first night? My fall back is Chabad...but that is a bit out of our element....I am going to try and hint harder over the next few day... wish me luck!

Just Because!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Check Out This Cantor!

ok I'm biased...this is Cantor Ethan Leifer the Cantor of the Merrick Jewish Center...where I am on the board....take some time to check him out, he is truly gifted!
This video is from a concert held at our synagogue a few weekends ago....there are some other videos from the event on You Tube if you would like to hear more.
He is talented, but he also has been very lovely to me....he has taken the time to hold Hebrew classes which I have attended, and bluntly where I was the slowest learner in the class. He never was anything but supportive of me and I am grateful to him for that!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Macro/Micro

With so many epic, archetypal events, positive, negative and disastrous going on in the world it can seem trivial if down right selfish to be considering my own little world...yet in some ways I believe this is something Judaism give to us...the way to remain focused and together even when the global energies are tearing at the seems.

We say prayers many times through out the day, we concentrate and what foods etc... yet in keeping ourselves whole and connected to the mundane of life we also connect to the holy...as people struggle in man made and natural life and death encounters through out the world, I get to live.....I get to make a choice...I get to focus on the mindfulness of my daily life....

This choosing we can do for ourselves but we also can choose to engage in practice for the sake of the entire world....there is a Buddhist Monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, who is fond of saying peace in oneself is peace in the world...

If we can carry the ability to stay focused on the micro while the world spins with the pressing and overwhelming nature of the macro....we are positively giving back to the world......

Friday, March 11, 2011

Zero Hour....

Our Shabbateinu starts this evening... on December 29th the cantor of the shul I attend sent the following:

hi Karen,
I would like to assign you Shma and V'ahavta for the Friday night service of Shabbateinu? Sound good? I will of course send you a recording.

I am not ready...but I think I will never be ready so here comes zero hour! I have had non speaking aliyah during services but I have never had to speak in Hebrew in front of the congregation! I have been listening to the recording given me so much I have been dreaming about the V'ahavta....I'll let you know how it went...........

Shabbat Shalom

Purim Song

Beit Din test Question #22 "If you were to join the Jewish people......."

22) If you were to join the Jewish people, what considerations would guide you to that decision? How did your course help you to recognize some meaningful ideas to Judaism? Are there some things you have learned in the course that you find difficult to accept into your life?

I have been a thinker and a seeker for most of my life. I have explored many faiths, been involved in and have a keen interest in philosophy and psychology. I was raised in an Irish/Italian Catholic home. I lived as a Buddhist/Unitarian Universalist for most of my adult life and previously was married for 20 years to a Jewish man who did not practice his faith of origin. At the birth of my child, now 19, I sought to learn as much as I could about Judaism in order to expose this child to the faith of part of her ancestors. So I come to this new point in my life with all my experiences, knowledge and aspirations.

But the question remains how did I come to consider conversion? It is though love that the door of conversion was opened. I fell in love with a Jewish man who participates in his religion, yet he did not require me to convert, pressure me, or in any way attempt to persuade or force me. This exploration of faith was of my choosing, my volition, nurtured by love.

Clearly I am not dogmatically tied to my faith of origin, seeing that the religious expressions which dominated my adult life have been mostly non-theistic. The major change/challenge for me is in the consideration/acceptance of a theistic understanding of existence. Through explorations with my sponsoring Rabbi, reading, (lots of reading!) and the Hillel class I have come to an understanding of the divine, a place of relationship with a theistic point of view that resonates within me.

To help to articulate this I refer to the work of existentialist thinker and Jewish educator Franz Rosenzweig.

“The function of religion, according to Rosenzweig, is not to erect theological systems or establish universal truths, but to lead to experience of God, starting from one's own personal existence. He "commends 'the Pharisees of the Talmud and the saints of the Church' for knowing that 'man's understanding extends only so far as his doing.' Religious observance is, in effect, the doing of one's religious convictions; the two cannot be separated."
“(Time Magizine Monday, Jan. 01, 1951 , http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814185,00.html)

For Rosenzweig the written word was to be less important than the living exchange, for it is in the doing that the relationship to God will manifest. This idea blends well with my own mindfulness practices. These practices express that it is in the awareness of the moment, the only moment we truly have, where peace and divinity can be experienced.
Through my answers on this exam, my participation in the class and my meetings with my sponsoring Rabbi, I believe I clearly present that I am coming to know, and hopefully I am beginning to understand the meaningful ideas in relationship to Judaism. Clearly there is so much to learn, and experience.

I am most taken by the direct experience of the divine associated with taking on the laws and practices of this ancient faith. I have aspirations to practice in this tradition, but once again they can be best articulated through Rosenzweig:
“Rosenzweig’s approach was subjective also in connection with the mitzvot, Jewish observances. He did think that he would one day become a fully observant Jew, but believed in the gradual approach in which the observances slowly made their impact by “ringing a bell” for him. Typical of this approach is Rosenzweig’s answer to someone who asked him whether he wore tefillin [phylacteries]: “Not yet,” he replied.”
(My Jewish Learning.com http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history_community/Modern/IntellectualTO/Rosenzweig.htm)

Like the bell of mindfulness practice, the mitzvot, the mindfulness practice of Judaism, will take time to incorporated and to resonate within. Like the ringing of the mindfulness bell, or the sounding of the Shofar, the act of doing Judaic practices pierces the daily, the mundane and hopefully will help to awaken me to an even richer and more connective relationship with the Jewish people and the divine.