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 […]
Interpretation of the Torah, Pardes, and Kabbalah Read Post »
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
Kochava’s Essential Jewish Library Read Post »
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
Shavuot: The Holiday of Nerds, Vegetarians, and Converts Read Post »
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
Shabbat Shalom! The Smell of New Books Edition Read Post »
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
UPDATED: Schoolwork v. Shabbat Read Post »
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,
Phrase of the Day: Yasher Koach Read Post »
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
Adventures in Semantics: D’Oraisa v. D’Rabbanan Read Post »
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
Action-Based Mitzvot and Ethical Mitzvot Read Post »
I have a shiur (lecture) by Rabbi Yom Tov Glasner that I really enjoy. It’s from Aish Audio and is called Practical Spirituality: How to Make the Right Choices. The title actually has very little to do with the shiur (at least to your average listener). It’s very much about the nature of reality, kabalistic
Shabbat Shalom: Orthodox Judaism Is a Full-Time Job Read Post »
First, what’s a shiur? It’s usually just a lecture about something that is somehow tied to Jewish thought. And it usually has a lot of Hebrew and/or Yiddish and/or Yeshivish. I used to become very frustrated when listening to shiurim (plural of shiur) because of the frequent use of words I didn’t understand. However, now
How to Listen to a Shiur Read Post »