A while ago a friend of mine, who is sort of patrilineal, possibly matrilineal and either way planning to convert, asked whether I ever thought that being a Jewish convert was oddly like being transsexual. There's the feeling that ones internal identity doesn't match the way one was originally perceived; trying to convince big important gate ( Read more... )

This year I tried not to get too stressed about Pesach prep but failed and still ended up having a couple of sleepless nights. Despite that, by the time it got to the time for the seder I was feeling happy and relaxed and energised by the arrival of my guests (particularly Alice who arrived early to help and made the ratatouille). This year we ( Read more... )

I really have to thank cathedral_life for pointing me in the direction of the Fifty Percenters Blog. I might blog about it more later. I particularly liked the post The Christmas Tree Debate is a Distraction. Go read the original post but if you really can't here's a quote which sums a lot of it up:
"if my children's sense of Jewish identity was so fragile that ( Read more... )

On the radio I was listening to a discussion about whether supermarkets should label food from the West Bank to make clear whether it was grown by Israelis or Palestinians so consumers could choose not to buy food grown in Israeli settlements but still buy food from West Bank Palestinians. I was reminded that this sort of labelling could go both ( Read more... )

Previous years Pesach has always been my least favourite holiday. It's the food issue. I'm vegan and don't live in Jewland. Trying to have a kosher Pesach is that bit more of a struggle and I tend to fear that I'm going to starve. I've also always had the worst of both worlds because I didn't feel like I culd eat anything but also couldn't keep ( Read more... )

This term I have been taking advantage of the fact that Cambridge students are allowed to attend any lectures at the university by attending Biblical Hebrew at the Divinity Faculty. I have attempted to learn Hebrew many times before. I've never before really got to and stayed beyond the point of being able to sound out words and knowing some of the ( Read more... )

I've been getting quotes from various hairdressers for putting my hair up for my wedding. As I was walking out of one of them I had the odd thought that my wedding day might be the last time I go to a hairdresser. I haven't been to a hairdresser in about two years because my hair is just long and straight and I can't quite bring myself to pay over ( Read more... )

I first saw this icon months ago and ever since I got a paid account have been looking for it so that I could snitch it. Finally I have found it. I don't know who made it because I got it from someone who hadn't credited it. Anyway KITTEN!

Look at the kitten! Look at the kitten! Look at the kitten! Look at the kitten! Look at the kitten! Look at ( Read more... )

I'm a bit worried because I've agreed to leyn the first 9 verses of the Torah reading this Shabbat and I'm still having trouble learning it despite learning it from 'Trope Trainer' or karaoke Torah as I like to call it, for the past week. I've got verses 1-5 pretty much down, verses 6-8 I can sort of do with vowels and I haven't started learning ( Read more... )

I promise I'm not writing this in bits in a desperate attempt to get more comments on my LJ. I keep needing to go out having written a bit ( Read more... )