So, it's on. We're doing it. We're going to read the whole Torah this year like Jews are supposed to, starting at Simchat Torah and ending at... Simchat Torah next year, I guess.
Yeah, so... I grew up in the Jewish tradition. I have Jewish parents, went to synagogue, did Sunday School, suffered through Hebrew School, tortured a really lovely private Hebrew tutor who came to our house, and was eventually Bat Mitzvahed. All while believing in many gods and being, in practice, a happy little Pagan. But there's a lot of Jewishness in my makeup through osmosis, I guess, and I culturally identify as a Jew.
My husband is not a Jew, but he grew up in New York City on the Upper West Side, so he has some Abrahamic street cred. He was raised a strict atheist, but through exposure to Jewish friends and NYC culture is clearly Jewcy enough to be approached by Lubavichers from the Mitzvah Tank seeking to en-frum-ify him, as he strolls past the bargain bin lulavs and straight-from-Israel etrogs (they're cheaper without a box) that line the sidewalk this time of year between the subway and the apartment in which he lived as a child.
Our daughter, naturally, was brought up in ADF Druidry (like you do), but has a definite cultural affinity toward my side of the family when it comes to being a member of the Tribe. We had a naming ceremony at my parent's (and my former) synagogue when she was a baby, and now that she is eleven we are thinking hard about what kind of coming-of-age thing she might do.
And that's why we started thinking of learning more about Judaism. It's part of her heritage, it's part of my heritage, it's part of the whole canon of Western European literature... I am so enthusiastic about the concept of Tikkun Olam and social justice and valuing education and discourse, but what do we do? Join a synagogue? Even though we kinda don't believe in the whole monotheism thing? We tried joining a Jewish community center, but it didn't really have much structure and was a little too far away to be convenient. So, I hit upon the idea that we should read the Torah together and try to light the Shabbat candles for a year. Surprisingly, Atheist Husband was on board from the start (or, at least, he didn't complain). It's been mentioned to Small Druid, but I don't think she has totally caught on yet what we plan to do.
We begin next week!!!
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Here are some great online resources, like:
Union for Reform Judaism
ReformJudaism.org
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Hebcal Jewish Calendar Torah Portions
The books I've procured for this endeavor:
The Torah: A Modern Commentary Travel Edition
Edited by Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut. (ISBN 978-0-88123-247-9) Copyright © 1981, Revised in 2005, 2006.
The Torah: A Women's Commentary
Edited by Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, PhD, and Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, PhD. (ISBN 978-0-88123-250-9) Copyright © 2008.
The Haftarah Commentary
Commentary by Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut. Translation by Rabbi Chaim Stern, with the assistance of Philip D. Stern. Rabbi S. David Sperling, Consulting Editor. (ISBN 978-0-88123-251-6) Copyright © 1996.
Gates of Shabbat/Shaarei Shabbat: A Guide for Observing Shabbat
Edited by Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro. (ISBN 978-0-88123-269-1) Copyright © 2016.
