Like most love stories my love affair with Judaism all started when I met and fell in love with a man that would one day become my husband.
On our first date Mr. Challah-Girl told me that he was not raised Jewish but, his father was and that he’d like any future Challah-children we might have to be raised Jewish. He also told me he was fine with not having any children as an alternate option should I not want to partake in the Jewish faith. Pretty up-front and direct right?
Much later after the topic of marriage was on the table he brought it up again.
Well, I thought… I really like this guy but… I don’t know anything about Judaism. How can I make such an important decision without any background information? I mean, given the choice between no children ever and the task of having children but raising them in a religion I know absolutely nothing about – I couldn’t answer. It was impossible.
Enter the internet!
I started researching and reading every single thing I could on the beliefs and practices of the Jewish people. Blogs, reviews, wikipedia articles, books, commentary – anything I could get my hands, eyes or ears on pertaining to the subject!
I very quickly fell in love – again. This time not with my husband but with the beautiful ideas behind Judaism’s numerous and complex (and sometimes frankly – complicated!) traditions.
I was now confident that Judaism was something that I wanted in my life but – how to go about it practically? There was too much to start doing everything all at once and did I really even want to do everything that people associate with Judaism? Plus, was I going to formally convert? And if I did convert was I going to be Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or Reconstruction-ist?
After much thought, I settled on eventually being a Jew (and figuring out the answers to all these questions) by being “Jew-ish” for awhile.
I’m taking my time and working through each step at my own pace.