Comments on Just Call Me Chaviva: Journeying to Judaism: A Square Peg

You say, "Christianity, in my experience, had...

2009-07-15T12:04:48.156-06:00

You say, "Christianity, in my experience, had become an easy out that I just couldn’t grasp. It would have been so easy to just believe, to put all my faith in a single idea, and let the rest of my life waft by." I am reminded of the story of Rabbi - formerly Pastor - Asher Wade's conversion. In short, he was troubled by the meaning of life, and so he first spent several days poring through Augustus, where he found something to the effect of, "Believe in Jesus, and until you die, eat, drink, and be merry." Needless to say, this hardly satisfied, and his wife suggested checking the Bible. (Doh!) He opened it, and marveled; "This is great! Do this, and don't do that! Do this, and don't do that! This is amazing!" Then, he realized he was reading the half. And that's why he's no longer a pastor.

My mother similarly felt that Christianity offered too little in the way of purpose and meaning to life; she tells me that growing up, Christianity never quite sat well with her, but she didn't know why. She relates an argument with her mother (an Evangelical Christian, though she called herself one of the Plymouth Brethren), about whether one should help impoverished primitives first materially, or whether first spiritually - should one first convert them even if they'll die of starvation, or should one first satisfy their physical needs? My mother took the material route, her mother the spiritual.

Never understanding why she couldn't be a good believing Christian, my mother went to Jews for Jesus, thinking that if Jews can be convinced to become Christian (she of course wasn't fooled by the obfuscating propaganda of being a "fulfilled Jew"), all the more she can be so convinced herself!

Moreover, she thought, if the one-liners from Sunday school could be so powerful, imagine the whole chapter! So she studied, and discovered that the Christological interpretations are all taken out of context. (Interjection by myself: but are not Midrashic interpretations by the Rabbis also taken out of context no less egregiously than the Christian interpretations? I have much to say on this matter, and Rabbi Hayim Angel of Congregation Shearith Israel in NYC told me some profound things on this, but I digress.) So she studied the Jewish interpretation of the Tanakh - remember, under the auspices of J4J! - and eventually converted to Judaism.

As for her disagreement with her mother, let us note what Rabbi Israel Salanter said: "We tend to be concerned with our own material well-being and our neighbors' souls. But we should rather be concerned with our own souls and our neighbors' material well-being. For our neighbors' material well-being IS the condition of our own soul.)

Of course, since she had to go through all this travail to find Judaism, I've been spared all the agony, and my spiritual life has been relatively calm and uneventful.

(Except for the several months during which the Book of Daniel inspired some peculiar doubts in the authenticity of the Tanakh and prophecy. Luckily, academic scholarship helped me out of that quicksand. But I digress...)

On the other hand, I've had to defend the secrets of Castle Torah against...the evil forces of parochial myopia! (Nod to He-Man.) I only just realized how much similarity I have to the protagonist of Rabbi Marc Angel's recent novel, The Search Committee. David Mercado, the protagonist, grows up semi-Hebrew-literate in the traditional Greek Sephardi community in Seattle, Washington. Realizing his ignorance, however, he soon finds himself in a Haredi Lithuanian yeshiva in NYC. Suffice it to say, he experienced not a small amount of culture shock. (He also married a convert to Judaism from Greek Orthodox Christianity, but that's another story, a rather touching romance actually.)

So mazel tov, yasher koah, hazak u'barukh on all your spiritual endeavors!

All of your comments have been so good to read. ...

2009-06-24T12:06:50.237-06:00

All of your comments have been so good to read.

@Anat/@Ofir Yes, you are right. Oops, hah. I won't correct it because, well, it's pretty accurate.

@Shira The cheese doesn't always stand alone!

@Rachel Yeah, I think religion here is unique to anywhere else, and at some points it can be quite scary. Have you ever been to the states?

@Gerim I'm so glad you saw a bit of yourself in the story. My general story that I wrote for the bet din in 2006 is on my sidebar there on the right, but I need to update it, I think.

@Jack Thanks!

@Anonymous Whoever you are, I hope they were happy tears, and not sad tears?

Brought tears to my eyes...

2009-06-23T23:14:31.974-06:00

Brought tears to my eyes...

I enjoyed reading this. It is interesting.

2009-06-23T01:44:59.212-06:00

I enjoyed reading this. It is interesting.

As someone with a similar background of trying to ...

2009-06-18T13:44:30.746-06:00

As someone with a similar background of trying to "fit" into Christianity (though my mother was a somewhat religious Christian so I guess my story is a little different), it was very inspiring for me to read your story. I was always searching for the right place, and eventually realized that was Judaism!
I would love to read a post of how you came to Judaism...or is it somewhere in your blog archives? Link me!

Loved it. Thanks so much for sharing.

2009-06-18T08:08:27.070-06:00

Loved it. Thanks so much for sharing.

This is interesting, seeing it from the perspectiv...

2009-06-18T05:02:29.302-06:00

This is interesting, seeing it from the perspective of someone who spent a very large portion of her formative years trying to fit into some form of Christianity. I think this is one of the many areas where the US and the UK differ. Nominally, the UK is a Christian country and the head of state is the head of the Church of England, part of the Anglican congregation worldwide. But in actual fact, Christianity features very little in the day to day lives of the majority of the people, even if they aren't adherents to another faith.

From what you describe, and from what I have seen, heard and read elsewhere, Christianity is big business in the US (and I use the word business deliberately). Perhaps I have just come across only a particular type of information and I don't mind being told that I'm wrong! But church camps, university Christian fellowships and so on - whilst I am sure they exist, they don't attract the same level of attendance and enthusiasm amongst the general population. If you ask the man on the Clapham omnibus (an old-fashioned term for an average man/woman in the street) he would say he wasn't of any religion (and here again, I exclude us 'minorities' from that observation).

It's interesting - Christianity in politics is shied wawy from here - if the Prime Minister waxes lyrical about his/her faith then it doesn't generally go down well. If your President does the same.... a little bit different, don't you think?!

Thank you for posting this :)

rachel

RT what Anat said. The beauty of the word "sh...

2009-06-17T19:36:28.673-06:00

RT what Anat said. The beauty of the word "shul" is that it implies that it is a house of learning. I don't think you see that in mondo Christianity.

It's good to hear from another refugee from se...

2009-06-17T17:04:37.644-06:00

It's good to hear from another refugee from secularism - which is what I am. My parents did not believe in the value of anything religious and I was always fascinated by the religious people around me.

In the fourth paragraph, you write that the pastor...

2009-06-17T12:37:13.482-06:00

In the fourth paragraph, you write that the pastor called the people who were suffering to come to the front of teh shul. I guess you meant church, but to me it shows that you really belong in a shul...