Copyright 2009
Warm Embrace of Judaism?..the experience
As I started out my life, I always felt a warm embrace to the spirit of Judaism in the home. I loved stopping in at Berea shul on a Friday evening and then going home to our parents for a lovely Friday evening dinner. Synagogue on Rosh Hashanah was always a problem for me. There is an awe and an expectation as the day approaches, but for some reason it is also a hard time. Synagogue for Rosh Hashanah in Johannesburg with cantors and choirs as we knew it was a treat and somehow the awe of the day made up fro my trepidation the weeks prior to the event. Synagogue in the United States as we knew it in SA , does not exist in the midwest in my experience. In truly orthodox synagogues there are no choirs .
In the USA, I have travelled my journeyed from Orthodox, to Conservative, to Traditional, to almost nothing, and then back to Chabad and orthodox. I have always maintained a kosher home, but I do not think that KDHS emphasized enough that what comes out of one?s mouth is more important than what goes in. There was a changing event in my life that turned me back to a greater belief. One of my patients who was sweating and blue in the face after walking 30 feet huffed and puffed and told me that his greatest goal in life was to go to church on the following Sunday morning. That statement started me thinking. I hoped and prayed that one day I would find the spiritual fulfillment that would make me want to go to synagogue with such passion. That day did come. I studied with Rabbi Flinkenstein, a Chabad Rabbi. We learned in depth from Leviticus, 19 : 11-16 which basically deals with how to treat each other with respect, refraining from gossip, not to place stumbling block before the blind, not to stand by while your fellow?s blood is shed and ends with the famous? and you shall love your fellow as yourself- I am Hashem?. SO from that point on , I started to study the Torah portion on my own every week and I go to shul weekly to hear it read. I have studied the tehillim on my own from the Hirsch commentaries and this is always inspiring. Currently in between patients I attend a weekly class on Megillat Rut. I am grateful to have had the background in Hebrew that I have because I am able to seek greater meaning and increased understanding by comprehending the Hebrew text. (BTW we are not completely Shomer Shabbat in our home either, and I just do what I am comfortable doing, though there is no business and shopping here on Saturdays)
For me Megillat Rut is an amazing story because in it we learn how the Jewish orthodox conversion process is modeled completely on this text. We can find ourselves in the pages of the Torah here in 2009. One last example of this is that after the Mumbai episode last November, we read how the Indian nanny Sandra while hiding in a closet, heard a baby crying, and she was able to muster up courage to run to save that two year old Moshe?s life. Is that different to the courage that Pharoah?s daughter had when she saved the other ?Moshe? when she heard his cry?? and that was the start of our Torah debates for thousands of years to come.