evets007

So, about a month ago, well I guess more like three weeks - but who is counting - Emily had her date with the Beit Din and the mikveh. And as I knew she would she impressed the three Rabbis and the one Rabbi-in-training. And on that following Saturday Emily and I had an aliyah. I was asked a couple of weeks before if I wanted an aliyah and I turned it down. It's probably not the best thing to do when asked since it is an honor - but I really wanted my first aliyah at our temple to be with Emily and I'm so happy that it came true. Maybe that's cheesy, but it was important and meaningful to me.

After the mikveh we had a great day together - it was just a relaxing, fun, maybe euphoric (if I know what that word actually means) day. Tough to say it was our best day together, but it is one I will never forget.

I'm not sure I'll do another journal entry after today. I really wanted to be more diligent about this journal for the class and our journey together and I'm sad I didn't do a better job. I'm just not sure I'll want to keep this up now that we've moved on from the class and on to the studying of what we want to know and learn.

It seems like the light at the end of the tunnel is approaching rapidly. Very exciting time. I would imagine very exciting and nervous for Emily, but I am very excited. Whenever I really think about us, together, I know Emily loves me. There is no way without a doubt that someone would go through this process putting in 110% effort like she has for someone that you don't care about deeply. Especially when you throw in the added hurdle of having a pool of water involved. She's the best and I'm the luckiest. I guess that's something else that this journey, or whatever you call it, has done for me: besides the Jewish education, the bond we have is much, much tighter now than it would have been without having gone through this together.

Passover ended yesterday. Despite the matzah, I think Passover is my second favorite Jewish holiday (how could the americanized hanukkah not be #1?). There's no other Jewish holiday where family really tries to get together and have a nice meal without any distractions. This Passover will be very memorable because of the sedar we had at a friend's house, the super-quick sedar we had with my family and b/c I spent it with Emily. I'm very proud that she stuck to observing the rules. I wouldn't have thought any less if she cut some corners, but she didn't. She's the best!

We start our classes again next week. I'm looking forward to starting them up again because we have more classes behind us than we do in front of us. It's like we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Very exciting.

Time flies between entries. I don't even know where I've been to not have written a journal entry. Oh well. I'm here now.

Conversion class is moving along quickly. I think we're at week 11 out of 22 or 23. So, possibly half done after this Wednesday's class. Wow. We still have lots to do for the wedding. I'm not nervous yet, but it would be nice if we could start crossing some things off the "to-do" list.

I'm really enjoying the reading for the class, particularly the books by Kuschner and Kling. I think the Strassfield holiday books is a good reference book, but I'm not a fan of being assigned reading from it. We have a 3-5 page paper due next Wednesday, March 29. My topic is "The Public Reaction to Sandy Koufax's Decision to Not Pitch on Yom Kippur". Or something like that. To me this is interesting, to see how the public viewed SK's decision not to pitch the first game of the 1965 World Series because the game fell on Yom Kippur.

So I didn't have a chance to finish my journal entry from yesterday. Fitting that I titled the subject "Slacker".

Onward - Learning hebrew aside, I think I've learned more in the three classes that we've had than I did in my 10 years of hebrew school (10 sounds like the right number, though it might have been slightly more or less).

I hope Emily gets a lot out of the classes as I know I will. The torah portions we've read so far are a reminder that I need to read my Tanakh. I have two copies, one which I asked for and received from my parents as a Hanukkah present (2004). In fact, I'm going to make a point of starting to read it next week. Slacker, continued.

Yesterday was our third day (of 22) at conversion classes. I slacked in getting a journal set-up. Also, I didn't know what to write.

Let's see - I guess I'll start at the beginning. There's over two dozen other people with us, most are couples but ther are a handful of people who are enrolled by themselves. Of the couples, all but one consist of a Jewish man and a non-Jewish woman. Don't know what that means, but two find the split so lopsided caught me off-guard. I guess if I thought more about it I shouldn't have been as suprised since it is the woman's religion that passes on to the off-spring so for a mixed couple to have Jewish children the mother needs to be Jewish - or the child would have to convert.

The Rabbi is a great teacher. You can just tell in the way he leads the discussion that he is completely at ease and is incredibly knowledgeable. He doesn't presume that anyone knows anything so he starts very basic, which I like. I guess that means I don't know much of anything when it comes to theological studies.

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