Ruth Teaches Us to Welcome Those Who Seek Judaism

Ruth Teaches Us to Welcome Those Who Seek Judaism

From the Heart

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

 

My class in Discovering Judaism is open to all, member/non-member, Jew/or not/ seeking/just exploring/no particular reason. My life has been most richly blessed by these people who have chosen to spend Tuesday nights with me in a comprehensive study of Judaism. We go a mile wide and more than an inch deep. Often whatever I think to accomplish is usurped by questions that cannot be denied. Except for my years on Long Island where we had a communal class, I have been doing this every year of my Rabbinate. Each participant is different. Each brings something special to the table. Each brings their own questions. As many as I have been asked, there is always something new. They learn, and I learn, too. I am grateful to them.

 

Often the participants come because they are searching for Judaism. While marriage, to a Jew, either in the future or in the past, sometimes instigates this search, ultimately, each person must accept the faith to be their own, completely and unquestionably. There are many difficulties that exist. I hope that our conversation assists them in overcoming the potential stumbling blocks. I welcome, I embrace tightly, I love completely, these men, women and the children they bring, who relinquish their past to embrace us, to adopt Judaism as their faith and the Jewish people as their own. This is a tremendous leap. Our people, from its very beginning of our history, has been infused with people who have transcended any barrier, to become Jews, to be Jewish, to "walk the walk" much more than just "talking the talk."

 

I feel compelled to reiterate this theme, on which I have written in the past, for several reasons. First, it was a significant issue that the Rabbinical Assembly Convention that I attended this past week. For over five hours, more than a hundred Rabbis sat discussing intimately, with pain, pathos, hope, and anticipation, the issues of intermarriage and conversion. This column does not afford the space to review all of the components of our conversations. But this much is certain:

 

The Jewish people have grown quantitatively and qualitatively because non-Jews have always, throughout our history, sought to become Jews. Great Rabbis in the Talmud were converts to Judaism. These who choose Judaism might not have our past, but they are us in the present and we are one in our destiny. Once a person converts they have only one title: Jew. Just like us. For ever and ever.

 

Secondly, this year's class is soon to conclude, with a number of the members coming to the mikveh for the ritual of conversion, and then membership into our congregation. Year after year we have been enriched and blessed. Respecting their privacy, I don't publish their names, but they are our members and their children are in our Religious School. They stand on the bemah as Ben and Bat Mitzvah. They swear allegiance to our God.

 

On Shavuot we read the Megillah of Ruth. She was a Moabite. While originally part of the family, the people of Moab became an archenemy of Israel. And yet, Ruth left her family, people, land and god, to join the Jewish people and accept the God of Israel as exclusively hers. And she becomes the grandmother of King David, and thus the ancestor of the Messiah.

 

We welcome them into our people, our faith, our synagogue, our community, these children of Abraham and Sarah. Thank you for blessing us. B'ruchim Ha-Ba'eem. I love each and every one of you. Now and from all the years.

 

 

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

Temple Beth-El

3330 Grove Avenue

Richmond, VA 23221

Phone 804-355-3564

Fax 804-257-7152

www.bethelrichmond.org