Sunday, May 4, 2008

In case you're wondering...

Why "Death and Wine"?

C and I were talking about the etymology of "kaddish" and "kiddush", and C said, "You like Judaism because it's about death and wine! You should make that the title of your blog."

"Yeah, OK!" says I.

Shalom

Hello. My name is Anath.

Well, not really. "Anath" means "answer" in Hebrew, and I am starting this blog to chronicle the process of my conversion to Judaism. I chose the pseudonym not because I think I have answers, but because I expect I'll be asking questions for a very long time.

I'm not exactly starting at the beginning of my journey here. My first meeting with our rabbi was right after the last High Holy Days, and I've been poking around at my assigned reading and the Hebrew alphabet ever since, which means I've already been through half of the Jewish year. And I suppose the beginning of my journey was really long before that.

But for now, my name is Anath. I have a Jewish-by-birth spouse, C and a Jewish-by-choice best friend, H. C and I attend a Reform synagogue which has four rabbis and a cantor. I was raised to be a casual atheist by a retired Catholic and a lapsed Presbyterian, who are trying their best to understand how I ended up on this path. I'm trying my best to understand it as well.