The Hebrew alef-bet is easy to learn, even if you’ve never learned another language or think you’re too old of a dog to learn new tricks. And you don’t have to do it alone! Approximately every November, the National Jewish Outreach Program sponsors “Hebrew reading crash course” classes. Locate a class near you here! It’s free and […]
Working Towards Conversion: Set Aside Regular Time to Study
A conversion takes a lot of time. More than you ever expect it will. There is a lot to learn, and the frustrating thing is that there is always more to know. You will be learning Judaism until the day you die, and you will always find something new. It’s frustrating to realize how much […]
Interpretation of the Torah, Pardes, and Kabbalah
The Talmudic story of the four who entered Pardes sticks with me. It’s definitely in my Jewish Story Top 10. I couldn’t tell you why. Maybe it shows I’ve got a 1/4 chance of making it out of this conversion alive and mentally/emotionally/religiously intact. Four men entered pardes: Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher [“the other […]
Kochava’s Essential Jewish Library
After posting a picture of my Jewish library two weeks ago, I got many questions about the books on those shelves! So I decided to share the books that are MY “essential Jewish library.” I posted a list of recommended books for your own essential Jewish library in the tabs above. Your library will probably […]
Shavuot: The Holiday of Nerds, Vegetarians, and Converts
Shavuos is my favorite holiday. Really! I get to stay up all night learning interesting stuff and eating cheesecake. What’s not to like?? And I’m not the only convert who likes Shavuot best! Besides the nerdy, cheesy aspects of the holiday, it is also the holiday for converts. Quite honestly, I don’t understand why Shavuot […]
Shabbat Shalom! The Smell of New Books Edition
I am most definitely a person of the book. Judaism and law school only made this natural tendency worse by justifying being a book hoarder. This week, my missing seven boxes of books from California finally arrived! I mailed nine boxes when I moved from California to New York, for a total weight of approximately […]
UPDATED: Schoolwork v. Shabbat
It seems that many conversion candidates discover Judaism while in school, whether high school, college, grad school, professional school, whatever. When you already feel overwhelmed (hopefully) by your studies, how on earth could you become shomer Shabbat? In my case, I fell victim to that kind of thought process in college. Just like I thought I couldn’t […]
Phrase of the Day: Yasher Koach
You’ll hear this Hebrew phrase a lot. You may also see/hear it as “yishar koah.” It literally wishes the person strength. “May you have strength!” In short, it means something along the lines of “Good job!” It congratulates someone who has had the merit of performing a mitzvah or some other good Jewish task. Most often, […]
Adventures in Semantics: D’Oraisa v. D’Rabbanan
Just a quick vocabulary lesson today! There are many ways to classify mitzvot, and one of the major ways is by source: from the Torah or from the rabbis. Mitzvot d’oraita (mitzvos d’oraisa) are mitzvot directly from the Torah, both the Written Law and the Oral Law. The theoretical punishment (when there was/will be a […]
Action-Based Mitzvot and Ethical Mitzvot
I had a hard time deciding how to title this post. You can group mitzvos in any number of ways, but here I want to focus on 1) mitzvot that are primarily actions and 2) mitzvot that are primarily ethical (I also like calling them interpersonal). We each have a preference or one group that […]