Well it’s kind of hard for me to believe but JewsByChoice.org has been up and running for over a month now and it’s been a blast! We have a really awesome group of people blogging some great stuff that has generated some intelligent discussion. I for one am extremely pleased with everything. We are now well over 21,000 words and have (as of today) 29 posts and181 comments which in my opinion is very impressive considering none of us are superstar Jews. In terms of visits we hit well over close to 1400 in our first month and I expect are going to break the 1500 mark either later today or tomorrow (but remember no blogging on Shabbos! LOL). Sure this might be small potatoes compared to some of the other big blogs but it’s far beyond what I expected in our first month and as I previously mentioned I’m extremely happy about it.

Just in case some of you haven’t figured out what the blog is all about based on the name, here’s a snippet from our about page.

JewsByChoice.org (launched October 2007) is a grassroots, peer run, group blog focused on providing Jews by Choice (as well as other interested parties) with opportunities for exploring, discussing and engaging with Jewish Identity, Tradition and Culture.

If you haven’t visited yet please take a couple minutes and check out the blog because there is certainly interesting stuff going on there. Also if you’re a fan of this blog (even just a little bit of a fan) please add JewsByChoice.org to your blogroll and consider doing a post letting your readers know about us. We are really are building a great community over there and want to include as many people as possible, so any help in spreading the word is greatly appreciated.

Also I have a technical problem and I’m wondering if anyone reading this might be able to help. I have tried to add JewsByChoice.org to Jrants several times now and although I can register it doesn’t seem to be adding me. I don’t think it’s a question of being censored/screened off of the site. I just think that there’s a glitch either on their end or something to do with our RSS feed. I don’t know how to get a hold of the Jrants people so I’m hoping someone reading this can help. If that’s you please feel free to send an e-mail via the contact page.

Anyhow I know some of you are too lazy to check out the blog and so I’ve decided to bring some of the blog to you. Below is a round up list of what’s been going on over on the JewsByChoice.org blog. Just click on any link that sounds interesting and you’ll be magically teleported over to that post.

Be well
Avi aka Tikkunger

And again please consider helping to spread the word about this project.

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JBC.org Post Round Up!

November 2007 (2)

• 01: No Pain, No Gain: Becoming a Jew and Personal Loss (2)
• 01: Ethics In Kashrut & The Greening of Sacred Space (5)

October 2007 (26)

• 30: My Little Shul – Part 2 (1)
• 30: Reflections on Joining The Tribe (7)
• 29: Reform Magazine - The Outreach Revolution (7)
• 28: Jewish Reading (4)
• 26: The Community that said “NO” to Converts. (3)
• 25: Jewish Ritual on the Rise in America (7)
• 25: The Book of Ruth: Why Converts are Essential to Judaism (6)
• 24: Yankel’s Book Club (6)
• 21: Why I Am Not a Reform Jew - Even if I Get the Magazine… (28)
• 21: My Little Shul - Part 1 (22)
• 21: The Hidden Jews by Choice of Mizoram India (6)
• 20: Lekh L’kha! — Some Torah Comments from Chavi, the Amateur Torah Scholar (13)
• 19: Shabbat Shalom & Check out the New Digs! (2)
• 19: Rabbi Nina Mizrahi on Abraham and Spiritual Intelligence (6)
• 17: Unravelling the Scrolls (3)
• 15: Another Woman’s Perspective… (2)
• 14: How I Stopped Being a Jew for 49 Minutes this Shabbos (12)
• 12: Shabbat Shalom!!! (1)
• 12: Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan and welcoming new members (4)
• 11: What’s in a Name? … for a Jew. (14)
• 11: Big Tent Judaism - There’s Room For everyone! (3)
• 10: Jews by Birth…by Choice…One thing We do Have in Common (1)
• 08: High Holiday Reflections - Tashlich (3)
• 06: Ani Yehudi - I am a Jew (8)
• 04: How I re-became a Jew (3)
• 03: How I Became a Jew (2)

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This morning I received an email from a guy over at the Awakened Heart Project (AHP) telling me about their new website. I decided to check it out and WOW, I am impressed with what I saw. It’s basically an online resource with the stated aim of enhancing peoples understanding and experience of Jewish meditation and prayer.

Here is a blurb from their about page.

The mission of Awakened Heart Project is to promote the use of Jewish contemplative techniques that foster the development of a heart of wisdom and compassion. Cultivating an awakened heart leads to acting in the world with loving-kindness towards all beings recognizing them as manifestations of the Holy One of Being.

The AHP provides opportunities for a focused effort at refining contemplative Jewish practices, such as meditation and prayer, as well as creating opportunities for intensive practice.

Also here is some of what the site offers, as listed on their welcome page.

• • Regularly updated podcasts
  • Essays and articles on Jewish meditation
  • Jewish meditation events calendar
  • Meditation and contemplative Jewish resources

I haven’t spent a whole bunch of time going through these resources yet but they do look good. So I’m sure to be, a frequent visitor to this site. If your interested in the contemplative side of Judaism this site is a must see. If you don’t know anything about contemplative Judaism but are curious, this site will get you up to speed in no time, so check it out.

Technorati tags: Contemplative Judaism, Online Judaism, Jewish Meditation, The Awakened Heart Project, Jewish Audio

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Well I’ve been here for almost 2 months now and I’d say things are going extremely well. That’s saying a lot because I?m not a guy who usually transitions into new situations all that great but all things considered I can’t complain. Yes indeed things are going smoother than I could have ever imagined possible. That’s not to say that there haven’t been bumps along the way Just that there have been few and those that did happen have been minor at best.

I managed to finish a summary report for the first part of my thesis project (albeit a couple of weeks late) and that’s taken a huge amount of pressure off of me.

Tamara and I are having a lot of fun and getting along very well in my opinion. We’ve had the opportunity to do a little bit of traveling and spend some time with her parents which has been nice. We’ve also managed to do a pretty good job of keeping off of each other’s toes, which is not always the easiest thing to do with new couples.

Los Angeles is an incredible city and there’s a lot for us to do and to my pleasant surprise there are lots of very cool things to do for little or no cost at all. We’ve been going on a lot of walks and completed our first rural mountain hike.

Jewishly we are doing a lot of socializing which is great for me because my last few months in Ottawa were spent acting like a Jewish hermit. We’ve been attending a few synagogues regularly as part of our “Shul Shopping” and I believe we have pretty much figured out where it is that we will be joining and that?s VBS. Having said that there are a few other places like IKAR and Knesset Israel where I’m sure will be spending a fair amount of time as well but it looks like we will be calling VBS home.

In terms of daily observance I think we?re doing an excellent job of keeping kosher both in and out of the home and that’s something I’m/we are both really proud of. Although (holy crap I just realized I’ve been keeping kosher at home for about a year now, wow time flies) I was initially very reluctant about taking on Kashrut Observance, I absolutely love it as a spiritual discipline and couldn’t imagine giving it up. Having said that, although Tamara is the one who pushed me in to the kosher thing. I think it’s been harder for her to adjust to keeping kosher out of the house than it has been for me but I’ve got to admit she’s really leaned into it and doing extremely well.

Also we have set ourselves up with one of those fancy hand washing cups and have been washing our hands and reciting blessings/prayers in the morning and although it can be difficult to remember what gets done when, I’m finding it very spiritually rewarding. I think we’re both hoping to gradually introduce more and more of this kind of observance into our daily life but we want to do it in a sustainable fashion, without making ourselves feel overloaded. One thing I know Tamara really is attracted to, is reciting blessings at meals, so we’ve started working on that. As of yet we haven’t been all that successful in this department but were making small steps and it’s getting easier.

As for Shabbat were far from being Shomer Shabbos but I think we’ve both come a long way in a short amount of time. Friday nights we try to have arrangements either to eat at someone’s house (preferably walking distance) or have guests over. If nothing is going on then we just keep it simple but do nonetheless light candles do Kiddush and Hamotzi. If we are just staying home I’ve committed to turning off my computer and staying off of the telephone. A lot of this stuff has been initiated by me but I’m trying not to be a bully about it, so I have also done some compromising. For example Friday nights if nothing is going on then we keep open the option of watching an “in the spirit of Shabbat Oneg” DVD and that’s ok. I myself turn off my computer and won’t watch any television other than the DVD if that’s what we’re doing. Ideally I would like to be a little more Shomer Shabbos in this regard but Tamara has made huge compromises so I’m willing to hold back on this one, until she’s ready to go a little deeper, that’s if she’s willing to go a little deeper. As for Saturday’s were doing very good. No television, no computer, no telephone, no movies, no buying, no radio and no car unless it’s driving to shul (which is acceptable according to conservative Halacha, which is our current measuring stick) and then it?s just to and fro with no radio. So that means driving when we go to VBS or Ikar but if it’s Knesset Israel then we walk about 25 minutes. I really do enjoy walking to shul on Saturday morning but both of us prefer the services at VBS so were still working it all out. However besides that we do not get into the car and I must admit I love it.

Also in the spirit of full disclosure and this is something I’m not exactly proud of because it feels like cheating, even though it was my idea. For the summer we’ve set fixed times for beginning and ending Shabbos, so we’re going from 6:30 PM Fridays to 6:30 PM Saturdays. Even though I realize that this is cheating I also realize that we’re doing much more than a lot of other Jews we know. More importantly we realize that our observance isn’t fixed or static and we both have a committed goal of deepening our connection and practice so it doesn’t feel like we’re being lazy. If anything, I guess the way we see it is where learning to crawl before we walk.

Tamara and I are even doing some formal Jewish studying. We’re both registered for something called “Everyday Holiness” which is an intro to Mussar course, something I’m sure I’ll be blogging a lot about in the coming weeks and months. Were also trying to do Saturday Torah study when we attend shul, which I forgot to mention we’ve committed to doing a minimum of twice a month. We’ve actually been going more but we thought we should put in a minimum just in case we get lazy but to be honest I’m the one who has a hard time with Saturday Shabbat services and not Tamara. I’m used to attending a Reform synagogue back home where there’s a lot of English now that everywhere we go have conservative style services I’m having a very hard time. Which although can be painful is good because it’s taught me that I really need to lean into my Hebrew learning a lot more. We are also attending a Thursday night Torah study series at VBS which is sure to be excellent. Then come October we will be doing the UJ Marriage Preparation course which I’ve already blogged about. I was thinking about starting an adult bar mitzvah course offered at VBS in September but I’ve decided that we just have too much going on. I do want to do an adult bar mitzvah but I think I’m going to wait until after we’ve gotten married so that means sometime next year I guess.

Wow, this post has gotten HUGE and although I haven’t managed to get through everything I wanted to, I think I’m going to wrap up here but try to follow up with another post covering our Jewishness for two’ishness probably sometime next week. There are a few other things I want to get to this week both in terms of blogging and real-world stuff.

Anyhow that’s it for now and as always if you were able to make it through this long-winded post please feel free to share your thoughts and comments because I love to get the feedback.

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This morning I woke up at the ung-dly hour of 5 something AM and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I decided to see if there was anything new and interesting to watch online and that’s when I came across this.

They do not believe in peace talks. They do not want to share the land. They are well armed and are carrying out increasingly violent attacks, even targeting innocent civilians. They are members of Israel’s militant far right, and they are threatening to become Israel’s next big problem.

Read more about this documentary on the PBS webpage.

I’m far from being the most informed person when it comes to the many complicated nuances involved in the Israeli/Palestinian situation. However I just don’t understand how the extremists in this video can see themselves as being any different than Palestinian extremists. Murder is murder and misappropriation of G-D is insanely wrong regardless of whether you call him Allah or Hashem. Don’t get me wrong I think that much of what is done at the hands of Palestinian extremists is horrible but watching this documentary it’s clear that the bullshit flows both ways.

Anyhow I was disturbed by this documentary but it was very informative and I highly recommend checking it out.

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Part five

Part six

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TG on YouTube has arrived! Will the miracles ever cease? Seriously through this is my first attempt Video Blogging, so it’s rough  but the book is good, honest! Anyhow check it out and let me know what you think!

Here are a few links for those of you interested in learning more about Mordecai M. Kaplan ( I referred to his theology in the video as Kaplanian) or his view of Judaism as an Evolving Religious Civilization.

Lastly anyone who’s interested in purchasing a copy of “Olive Trees & Honey” by Gil Marks can do so by clicking here.

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Many of you probably don’t know this but I’ve been a huge fan of the chickpea most of my life, especially in tasty dishes like apple curried chickpeas, hummus or in a pasta dish. Anyhow last night I learned a couple of very interesting facts about chickpeas and their relationship to Jews and Judaism.

For example, apparently chickpeas were such a prevalent food among the Sephardic Jews living during the times of the Inquisition, that members of the Spanish Inquisition considered their use in cooking to be a sign of Jewish cuisine. Therefore people (whether actually Jewish or not) who were caught making things like chickpea stew, were subject to arrest based on the grounds that cooking with chickpeas meant that you were probably Jewish.

Another interesting fact I learned last night was that chickpeas which are easily grown in abundance were therefore considered to be a sign of fertility. Also their round shape symbolized the cycles of life and the year and therefore foods containing chickpeas were (are?) commonly served at events like birthdays. In fact (and I did not know this until last night) apparently chickpeas area a traditional Rosh Hashanah food because they represent, a wish for a well-rounded year to come.

Anyhow, I thought it was interesting!

PS feel free to share your Jewish chickpea stories and/or facts if you got them.

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Today a cool NPR program showed up in my RSS Reader on the subject of Jewish thought and practice as it pertains to marriage and family life. OK, actually it’s just the first half hour. The last 30 minutes focuses more on the Christian take and I’m not so into that. Not that there is anything wrong with the Christian take but its just not my cup of tea is all.

Anyhow obviously this is a subject which is of great interest to me both as an engaged (as in soon to be wed) and as a committed Jew. However I really enjoyed listening to this program for a few reasons above and beyond the obvious ones already mentioned.

The Jewish expert interviewed is Rabbi Elliot Dorff who just happens to me one of my favorite Contemporary Jewish Theologians. Incidentally he also teaches UJ here in LA which is a place I would eventually like to study at.

Another really cool and new thing I learnt listening to the show is that according to Rabbi Dorff a recent study looking at divorce showed that Jews who complete the UJ Marriage Preparation Course apparently only have an 8% divorce rate. I don’t know anything about how this study was conducted but 8% is a great number (even if only anecdotally) considering about 31% of US marriages end in divorce. More importantly is that Tamara and I have been planning on taking this course as soon as we can, so that 8% stats is very reassuring!

Rabbi Dorff ( in the extended interview - see below) also covers tons of other interesting stuff including sexual dynamics, the spirituality of marriage, homosexuality and divorce, to name but a few.  

There certainly is something of value here for anyone who is going to, is now, or has been married. So check it out!

Oh and if you do listen please feel free to share your thoughts on the topic!

Marriage, Family, and Divorce (July 5, 2007)

American ideals of courtship and marriage echo with Biblical imagery ? “bone of my bones” “flesh of my flesh.” But what does the Bible really say, and how has it been taught across the centuries in which the institution of marriage has changed dramatically? With a rabbi and a New Testament scholar, we explore nuances of biblical teachings about marriage, family, and divorce ? the surprising ambiguities of the New Testament and the striking practicality of Jewish tradition across the ages.

• Link
• Enclosure

Update: Click here to hear the full/unedited version of the Rabbi Dorff interview.

PS: TAMARA Check this out!

Summer 2007 Basic Seminars

Tue 7-9pm ? July 10 through September 11 ?  Wilshire Boulevard Temple (Olympic and Barrington) in West Los Angeles  

Wed 7:30-9:30pm ? June 13 through August 8 (no class July 4)

Thur 8:00-10:00pm ? May 10 through July 12

There’s not much time to think about this and it may even be too late to register but I thought I would put the the idea out there just in case you are into it!

Let me know what you think!

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So I’ve been in Los Angeles now for just under a month and I’ve noticed a couple of things. At the top of the list is something which has really taken me by surprise and that is (at least thus far) I seem to be more concerned and focused on being observant than many of my Jewish “by birth” friends and acquaintances. Now back home it was the same way but I just chalked that up to the fact that I belonged to a reform community where the patterns of observance where for the most part weekend warrior?s although there certainly were some exceptions. Here the people I associate with are certainly not reform, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if a few them were to take issue with being labeled as such. However to be honest most of the people I hang out with our newly engaged Jews, meaning that they were not raised in observant families. I would say that most of them have for whatever reason decided as adults to engage or reengaged with their Jewish identity be it spiritual or cultural and in this case most of them are somehow associated with or participating at a Chabad center.

It’s not like I’m hanging out with a bunch of black hats (although there are also a few of those in my extended network) but nonetheless, I’m really surprised at the way many of my friends approach observance. For the most part it seems that people pick one thing (keeping kosher or doing the minyan thing daily) but seem to willfully ignore other patterns of observance. In fact I’ve noticed that some people actually look for reasons to exclude other practices from daily or weekly life. I’ve got to admit that I’m having a hard time understanding why some of my friends are doing this. I’m not trying to say this in a judgmental sort of way or anything; it’s simply that I’m cognitively not getting it. Maybe it’s because I’m a Jew by choice or maybe it’s because I’ve done a non-Orthodox conversion and on some level I feel I need to make sure that I’m at least trying to cross my T’s and dot my I’s because it’s harder for me to be taken seriously in some circles. Who knows?

Since arriving here in Los Angeles I’ve found myself in several situations where I’m actually pushing gently nudging people (in a natural and organic kind of way - I hope) to lean into their observance a little more. Whether it’s wearing a Kippah outside of shul, walking on Shabbos (even if it?s really hot) or encouraging/supporting someone in finding ways to stay off the computer on a Saturday afternoon.

I don’t view the Mitzvot as binding so it’s not like I think people have to do everything in an or else kind of way. In fact one new insight I’ve gained since arriving in Los Angeles is that I seem to approach the Taryag Mitzvot more from a perspective of making a committed vow than I do from a place of submitting myself to a set of external commandments. I don’t want to go too deeply into this subject with this post because all of this is still being worked out in my mind and I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression, including myself LOL.

So anyhow I suppose what really gets me confused is how people seem to stay willfully ignorant of anything currently outside of their comfort zone observance wise. I know that I’m far from being mitzvah observant in any comprehensive sort of way but I certainly don’t look for ways to exclude new practices from my life. Unfortunately this is something that I have noticed in a few other people down here and I just don’t get it. I myself have worked extremely hard to change my way of thinking about Mitzvot from an attitude of pessimism and punishment to one of spiritual opportunity.

For example take Shabbos which is something I’ve really started to focus on since arriving in Los Angeles. At this point I’ve committed to giving up television, computers/Internet, audio books, telephone, spending money and driving (Unless we’re going to a shul or someone’s home for Shabbos which is just too far away to walk to - at this point anywhere I/we can walk to within an hour is doable at least according me) and to be honest there’s been next to no sense of loss over any of it. I said committed to giving up instead of “have given up” because I live with someone else that I think is having a harder time with this stuff than I am. So I’m trying (note I said trying which does not necessarily mean always pulling it off) to be somewhat flexible and gentle with all of this, albeit in a way that doesn?t make me feel like I’ve sold out my principles.

To be honest I really don’t feel like I’m giving anything up. In fact I increasingly feel like I’m making room for new things that would be impossible to have if I kept doing things the old way. When it comes to observance it’s really easy to come up with the reasons not to do something, O know this because I’ve done it myself many times. However it seems to me that as progressive (non-Orthodox) Jews who want and claim to be serious about our Jewish engagement, the onus is on us to go the full distance (and then some) when it comes to finding ways to make observance relevant because it is too easy to do just the opposite.

To my way of thinking the term “not binding” in no way equates irrelevant. So I suppose it’s just that I feel some of these people choose not to take on the responsibility of finding ways to make wider patterns of observance personally relevant, never mind actually becoming more observant! Its seems like the non-binding thing is just used as an excuse for too being lazy to intellectually engage with this stuff and IMO that’s not kosher (it’s not even kosher style).

I suppose that all of this is kind of funny in a sad sort of way because as I sit here typing this out what comes to mind is that many of us “progressive” Jews consider ourselves to be (in many ways) more evolved because we see ourselves as being much more “inclusive” than those “Orthodox” Jews. The ironically sad part of this is that although we struggle with and fight our own internal prejudices and bigotry in order to become ever more inclusive in terms of issues like sexual orientation or gender and race equality. Yet it would seem that many of us are exclusionists when it comes to Jewish tradition. Especially with regard to the Mitzvot and their potentially significant role in our spiritual development and understanding.

Anyhow I think I’ve rambled on long enough about this so until next time be well.

PS: The title was kind of meant as a joke because although I’m a Jew by choice who converted reform (apparently making me less Jewish and to some even not Jewish at all) I’m still much more frum than many of my friends who happen to be Jews by birth. I know, I’m witty and funny, you don’t need to tell me!

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Why don’t you take a break from your own “problems” this afternoon and think about doing DO SOMETHING a little different with your time. 

Need I say more?

Big fat kisses and hugs to both Treppenwitz and Jack for getting my attention.

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I stumbled on to this article Saturday night and thought to myself “wow this sounds like something I just wrote“.

It’s nice to see that I am not just making this stuff up in my deluded mind. Yes indeed it seems that others are just as delude as I am and I just love synchronistic craziness.

Here is a snippet from the article for those of you who are interested in the topic!

Kashrut - rooted in the Bible, and developed by the Rabbis - is the Jewish tradition’s clearly delineated response to this challenge. Kashrut sets limits on what foods we can eat: for example, we can only eat certain (primarily domesticated) animals, and we must slaughter them in the least painful, most respectful way. The blood must be drained and buried, because the life is in the blood and must be returned to the earth. There are also prohibitions against eating shellfish, and the mixing of meat and milk products.

We felt a need to expand this traditional understanding of Kashrut to include global environmental and social issues which the Rabbis of two thousand years ago did not face. In conversation with Jewish people in many communities, we have developed the following tentative guidelines for a Kashrut which speaks to our planetary concerns.

1. We are concerned about the earth as a living being, including the soil, water, air and all the planet’s living systems. It is important to choose foods which are produced, transported and packaged in a way that is sustainable and not harmful to the earth. For us this means buying organic foods even when they cost more, and we also try to choose foods grown locally - or grow our own! This minimizes transportation and connects us to the earth’s natural cycles.

2. We are concerned not only with how animals are slaughtered, but also how they are raised. Animals are often treated as commodities, to be “manufactured” as efficiently as possible for maximum profit. The resulting “factory farms” are appalling places, filled with unspeakable suffering. Upon reading John Robbins’ description of them in Diet for A New America, we decided to avoid all animal products that have not been raised humanely and respectfully.

3. We are concerned about the health of our bodies. We are responsible for taking good care of the bodies that God has given to us. Too much food can be destructive to our systems - especially if it is full of fat and sugar. Tobacco, alcohol, caffeine and other drugs can also be harmful. We eat mostly whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes and nuts. We try to pay attention to how our bodies feel about the food we are eating and to make our meals as nourishing and pleasing as possible.

4. We are concerned about the people who produce and prepare our food. We have extended Kashrut to include concern for how the people who grow and harvest it are treated. We use our food dollars to support growers and producers who demonstrate concern for their workers (and we avoid, for example, commercially produced grapes in response to the United Farm Workers’ boycott). We also use the Council for Economic Priority’s guide Shopping For A Better World to identify and support socially responsible producers.

You can read the entire thing over here if you like.

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