followingruth

I had my first aliyah today! Steve did it with me. I fumbled a little but didn't screw up too badly. I practiced about 1,000 times last night and this morning. The rabbi said a few things and everyone sang "Siman Tov" for me AGAIN! There weren't very many people there, which was a little dissapointing. However, it was also awesome that there weren't many people because, including Steve and I, there were exactly ten! Which means that I got to help make a minyan! Everyone seemed so happy for me. I love it.

I think I might have found a Hebrew name, if it is indeed a Hebrew name: Elspeth. My parents told me once that I was almost named that, so I think it is appropriate. It means "consecrated to G_d." The only thing is, I only found it on this random web site so I am not sure if it is acutally Hebrew or some variation of a Hebrew name. My rabbi has this big book of English to Hebrew names, and he found Emalia, which means "industrious," the same as Emily, so that is an option. I might borrow the book from him because my library doesn't have it. I haven't checked the Boston Library though.

So far, so good. I am enjoying the classes and finding them really interesting. Two and a half hours of religious instruction sounds like it might be boring, but the rabbi is a really good teacher and the time flies by.

Yesterday, we read the first part of chapter 12 of Genesis, in which God tells Abraham to leave his land and his father's home and go to a land that God will show him. I think it was a really good parallel to our journey, because we are sort of leaving a part of our life behind and we don't exactly yet know what we are getting ourselves into. Of course, there is no pressure to actually convert in this class. But I thought that verse was very apt for those of us planning to convert. The rabbi is good at selecting readings like that.

Another thing that is interesting is reading bible passages (Torah passages, I guess I should say) from a Jewish perspective. Not that I did a lot of bible reading before, but the Torah (the first five books of the bible) is just so Jewish! From what I know of it, modern Christianity has evolved quite a bit from the Old Testament, but just from the small amount I have learned so far, I can see that much of the Torah is applicable to Jews today. That probably seems really obvious to everyone else, but it is interesting to me to see Jewish practices that I already knew about outlined right there in the Torah.