Welcome: Introduction to Judaism
This is just a brief note to get us started. I believe one of the central questions of last week's class went something like this: If we essentially follow Jewish ethics and ritual behavior then why do we have to go through a conversion process? Any responses?
posted by Reb Josh @ 8:21 AM
1 Comments:
At 10:00 PM,
Amira said…
Seems this would imply that any rite of passage that is formally sanctioned is a moot point if individuals are capable of self-defining on the basis of their selection of codes and boundaries of personal and social behavior.
So what would be the assumptions behind requiring a formal commitment of some sort? My guess is that there is an inherent and important value to the public commitment to a people, and in this case, a people who are a people by virtue of their relationship to Torah and the G-d who has given this to us.
Why would one NOT want to convert? Perhaps answering those questions will answer the prior as well, for individuals struggling with the conversion question.
One of my chabad rabbis (from classes I take) says there isnever really a convert, just someone who owns his/her identity. Having come from a history of converso people who hid their Judaism during the inquisisiton in order to spare death and ostracizing tortures to our people, the act of conversion is a major act of public affiliation, during times when anti-semitism would make it easier just to be a jew-by-fad or jew-by-class or affinity.
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