Conversions news. Who is a Jew & Who is a Rabbi
Chief rabbi to demand stricter conversions during U.S. visit

By Anshel Pfeffer
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/913647.html
Thu., October 18, 2007

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar is visiting the U.S. this week in order to approve the appointment of religious court judges (dayanim) to the conversion courts of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA).

The agreement reached between the RCA and Amar gives the Israeli Chief Rabbinate practical control over the conversion process in U.S. It will also create new problems for those wishing to convert to Judaism there, similar to the kind that exists today in Israel.

For years, the religious councils in Israel accepted conversions performed by rabbis of the RCA, the largest body of Orthodox rabbis in North America. But in recent years, marriage registrars in local religious councils here have refused to recognize conversions by the RCA, and refused to allow those converted to marry in Israel. This new policy was dictated by Amar, who also provided the councils with a limited list of American rabbis who were the only ones authorized to conduct acceptable conversions.

Amar is actually considered to be more lenient in conversion matters in Israel, but he is under strong pressure from ultra-Orthodox rabbis who want to severly restrict the number of conversions, and who are demanding that all converts keep a strict Orthodox lifestyle.

The ultra-Orthodox rabbis object to the RCA in the U.S., which is identified more with the Modern Orthodox community, and have even set up a rival organization, Netzah Mishpahat Yisrael, to provide stricter conversions. The new group is trying to achieve full control of the conversion process in both the U.S. and Israel. As a result, Amar gave the RCA a list of demands in order for their conversions to be recognized in Israel.

Among other things, Amar demanded to end the common method of conversion in the U.S. whereby local rabbis were allowed to do conversions in their cities. Instead, Amar is demanding that only special conversion courts undertake conversions, and that he approve the members of these courts.

These demands were a source of controversy within the RCA, and a number of members even threatened to secede from the council and set up a separate organization. However, in the end they gave in and agreed to Amar's demands, since a lack of recognition of RCA conversions by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate would seriously harm the RCA's standing and cause potential converts to go elsewhere.

The new conversion courts will potentially force converts in the U.S. to travel long distances in order to be converted by an approved conversion court, which will demand that candidates keep a strict Orthodox way of life, without knowing them or their personal history.

"The rabbi went to meet the religious judges and check the courts," Amar's office said. "They were not promised anything, and they did not promise us anything. In the meantime, the Rabbinate is continuing to recognize conversions by the rabbis it recognized in the past."

Rabbi Basil Herring, the executive vice president of the RCA, said in response: "We are pleased to host Rabbi Amar on his visit to New York and Chicago. We are discussing a number of important matters with him, including the issue of conversion."

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Zionist rabbis consider independent conversions

By Anshel Pfeffer
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/914389.html
Thu., October 18, 2007

Forty-five rabbis from the national-religious movement have agreed to serve in proposed independent conversion courts that would operate without the recognition of the Chief Rabbinate. This challenge from within the Orthodox establishment to the Rabbinate's control of the process of converting to Judaism in Israel is a response to a long-standing perception that the rabbinical establishment is in thrall to the ultra-Orthodox tradition of making conversion difficult.

That position ignores the plight of the more than 300,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are not Jewish according to halakha. If the recommendations of the interministerial committee on conversion to expedite the process are not implemented soon, the rabbis are expected to establish the proposed conversion courts. That would represent another stage in the undermining of religious-Zionist rabbis of the Rabbinate, following struggles over marriage, kashrut and shmita in the past several months.

The latest steps began about six months ago with a conference of the Joint Conversion Institute, which prepares most prospective converts in civilian and military frameworks. After the head of the institute, Prof. Benjamin Ish-Shalom, announced that the requirements of the religious courts kept many graduates from completing their conversion, 45 rabbis agreed to officiate in religious courts that would convert the graduates, even without recognition from the Rabbinate. Most of the rabbis, the majority of whom who prefer not to be identified, are associated with with Religious Kibbutz Movement and the Tzohar rabbis? organization.

The main obstacle to the initiative will be the Rabbinate?s refusal to recognize their conversions, which will prevent the converts from registering for marriage later on. Among the 45 is at least one municipal rabbi who has promised to enable converts in his jurisdiction to register at his city?s Religious Council.

The existence of non-Rabbinate Orthodox converts is likely to ignite a struggle on the part of the national-religious public, much of which has already severed its connections to the Rabbinate, and could end up in the High Court of Justice.

One of the rabbis involved in the new initiative is Rabbi Benjamin Lau of Jerusalem?s Ramban Synagogue. "I said that not only am I willing to take part in it, but also that I would house a rabbinical court in our synagogue," Lau said. He said that some members of his congregation served as rabbis and rabbinical judges in the United States and have experience with conversion.

"I think there will be no alternative, the Rabbinate is undergoing a process of dissolution. We saw it with the issues of marriage, kashrut and shmita, and conversion is the core of the matter. One of our roles as rabbis is to serve the public and I see this issue as fulfilling our function," Lau said.

Despite several cabinet rulings calling for the institution of an accelerated conversion process to expedite the integration into Israeli society of non-Jewish immigrants, only 2,000 people are converted each year on average. The Joint Conversion Institute was created about 10 years ago, in the wake of a government committee?srecommendations, as a combined Orthodox,Conservative and Reform institution for teaching prospective converts. Conversion itself remained in the hands of special conversion courts, whose judges were appointed by the Rabbinate, which also set the conditions for conversion. Most of the judges are under the influence of the Haredi Council of Torah Sages, which opposes large-scale conversion and requires converts, as well as their children and families, to adopt an observant lifestyle.

In many cases these demands delay conversion, even for candidates who have studied for years in preparation for conversion. The strict image of these courts has scared away many would-be converts. According to studies carried out by the army?s conversion program, Nativ, about 40 percent of non-Jewish immigrants expressed an interest before they immigrated in converting, while after a one year in Israel the number dropped by at least 20 percent.

Three and a half years ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the creation of a state conversion program that would facilitate the process, but the new arrangement did not change the basic stance of the religious judges. In many communities, the local religious councils and the local rabbis refuse to recognize the conversion certificates presented by immigrants when they come to register for marriage.

Two months ago an interministerial committee headed by Absorption Ministry Director General Erez Halfon submitted a comprehensive report on the issue. It recommended, among other things, appointing to the conversion courts 40 volunteer judges who would not be beholden to the Haredi rabbis and would introduce a willingness to help the converts in their desire to join the Jewish people instead of finding reasons to prevent their conversion. It also called for giving Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar full authority over conversion issues. Amar opposes the idea of the volunteer judges, on the grounds that they will not be rabbis vetted by him and operating in accordance with his directives. Justice Ministry officials, meanwhile, argue that volunteers cannot hold official judicial positions.

Olmert has not yet approved the committee?s recommendations. The heads of the Joint Conversion Institute believe the volunteer initiative will not be implemented. Ish-Shalom refused to comment on the issue, but sources in his institute said that if the problem is not solved during a meeting scheduled for next Tuesday in the Prime Minister's Office, the plan for independent conversion courts will go ahead.

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Peres reaches out to leader of British Reform Jews

By Daphna Berman
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/914631.html
Sun., October 21, 2007

President Shimon Peres called yesterday for a more inclusive definition of Judaism and said the Jewish people have the right to decide who is a rabbi. He made the comments in his first official meeting with representatives of the Reform movement since he assumed the post in July. The meeting yesterday with leaders of Britain's Reform movement came in the wake of last year's crisis after then president Moshe Katsav refused to use the title "rabbi" in addressing Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, which represents some 1.5 million Reform Jews in North America.

During the half-hour meeting at the President's Residence, Peres addressed delegation leader Rabbi Dr. Tony Bayfield as "rabbi," according to participants. Bayfield heads the Movement for Reform Judaism in the United Kingdom.

"If rabbis have a right to decide who is a Jew, the Jewish people have a right to decide who is a rabbi," Peres reportedly told the group. The president also said that he was "troubled" by attempts to narrowly define Jewishess. "We are a disappearing people," he said. "We are not the Chinese. There are only 14-15 million of us. We need to be more careful, generous and understanding."
- posted by Izak @ 10:51 PM (0) comments

 
Ann Coulter wants Jews to become Christians
Ann Coulter on CNBC Show: Jews Need 'Perfecting'

By E&P Staff
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003657196

Published: October 11, 2007

NEW YORK Appearing on Donny Deutsch's CNBC show, "The Big Idea," on Monday night, columnist/author Ann Coulter suggested that the U.S. would be a better place if there weren't any Jewish people and that they needed to "perfect" themselves into -- Christians.

It led Deutsch to suggest that surely she couldn't mean that, and when she insisted she did, he said this sounded "anti-Semitic."

Asked by Deutsch whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament."

Deutsch told E&P's sibling magazine, Adweek, today, "I was offended. And then, and this was interesting, she started to back off and seemed a little upset."

Asked to gauge her reaction, Deutsch said, "I think she got frightened that maybe she had crossed a line, that this was maybe a faux pas of great proportions. I mean, did it show ignorance? Anti-Semitism? It wasn't just one of those silly things."

A transcript, provided by Media Matters, follows.

DEUTSCH: Christian -- so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?

COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?

DEUTSCH: So I should not be a Jew, I should be a Christian, and this would be a better place?

COULTER: Well, you could be a practicing Jew, but you're not.

DEUTSCH: I actually am. That's not true. I really am. But -- so we would be better if we were - if people -- if there were no Jews, no Buddhists --

COULTER: Whenever I'm harangued by --

DEUTSCH: -- in this country? You can't believe that.

COULTER: -- you know, liberals on diversity --

DEUTSCH: Here you go again.

COULTER: No, it's true. I give all of these speeches at megachurches across America, and the one thing that's really striking about it is how utterly, completely diverse they are, and completely unself-consciously. You walk past a mixed-race couple in New York, and it's like they have a chip on their shoulder. They're just waiting for somebody to say something, as if anybody would. And --

DEUTSCH: I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that at all. Maybe you have the chip looking at them. I see a lot of interracial couples, and I don't see any more or less chips there either way. That's erroneous.

COULTER: No. In fact, there was an entire Seinfeld episode about Elaine and her boyfriend dating because they wanted to be a mixed-race couple, so you're lying.

DEUTSCH: Oh, because of some Seinfeld episode? OK.

COULTER: But yeah, I think that's reflective of what's going on in the culture, but it is completely striking that at these huge megachurches -- the idea that, you know, the more Christian you are, the less tolerant you would be is preposterous.

DEUTSCH: That isn't what I said, but you said I should not -- we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or --

COULTER: Yeah.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Well, it's a lot easier. It's kind of a fast track.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey.

DEUTSCH: You can't possibly believe that.

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: You can't possibly -- you're too educated, you can't -- you're like my friend in --

COULTER: Do you know what Christianity is? We believe your religion, but you have to obey.

DEUTSCH: No, no, no, but I mean --

COULTER: We have the fast-track program.

DEUTSCH: Why don't I put you with the head of Iran? I mean, come on. You can't believe that.

COULTER: The head of Iran is not a Christian.

DEUTSCH: No, but in fact, "Let's wipe Israel" --

COULTER: I don't know if you've been paying attention.

DEUTSCH: "Let's wipe Israel off the earth." I mean, what, no Jews?

COULTER: No, we think -- we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.

DEUTSCH: Wow, you didn't really say that, did you?

COULTER: Yes. That is what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws. We know we're all sinners --

DEUTSCH: In my old days, I would have argued -- when you say something absurd like that, there's no --

COULTER: What's absurd?

DEUTSCH: Jews are going to be perfected. I'm going to go off and try to perfect myself --

COULTER: Well, that's what the New Testament says.

DEUTSCH: Ann Coulter, author of If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, and if Ann Coulter had any brains, she would not say Jews need to be perfected. I'm offended by that personally. And we'll have more Big Idea when we come back.

[...]

DEUTSCH: Welcome back to The Big Idea. During the break, Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment. So I'm going to give her a chance. So you don't think that was offensive?

COULTER: No. I'm sorry. It is not intended to be. I don't think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to, you know, live up to all the laws. What Christians believe -- this is just a statement of what the New Testament is -- is that that's why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don't believe our testament.

DEUTSCH: You said -- your exact words were, "Jews need to be perfected." Those are the words out of your mouth.

COULTER: No, I'm saying that's what a Christian is.

DEUTSCH: But that's what you said -- don't you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic --

COULTER: No!

DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You're an educated woman. How do you not see that?

COULTER: That isn't hateful at all.

DEUTSCH: But that's even a scarier thought.

----

Simshalom comments:

Seeing an antisemite under every rug:

Coulter sounds like she`s advocating for the "Jews for Jesus" "Jewish Messianics" "Hebrew Christians" they could pay her commission for free advertsing. She`s talking the way Christians do when they dream of the Jews converting to Christianity. It`s not antisemitism, not in America at any rate. On the contrary, she admires the Jews, just that she`s expressing the standard Christian evengelical party line that it`s important for the Jews to become Christians. This is not hateful. It is missionizing and evangelizing 101. So now Jews know where she stands on this issue and should not engage her any more. Respect her for having the guts to have the courage of her convictions. This may come as a shock to some liberal Jews, but the Christians really do want the Jews to become Christians and if Jews do not study their heritage seriously and practice Judaism with devotion, chances are that they`re on a slippery slope to becoming Christians sooner or later, with the likes of Coulter prowling.

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In Defense of Ann Coulter

By Jay D. Homnick
Published 10/15/2007

A couple of years ago, the girls' volleyball team of Seattle Hebrew Academy's junior high (where Michael Medved's children attend) went undefeated, dominating the parochial school league in that area. One team from a Catholic school came to play them for the first time and Principal Rivy Poupko Klitenik greeted their bus on arrival. "And what is the team name?" she asked.

"We are the Crusaders."

She gulped. "Well, I hope this time turns out better than the last."

Which brings us to the curious case of Donnie Deutsch, his nasty ambush of Ann Coulter, his real or pretended thick-headedness about the relationship between Jews and Christians, and the subsequent piling-on of Ann for utterly inoffensive remarks. I watched the video clip of the entire exchange carefully and those are my considered conclusions.

Here is what happened. Ann is promoting a book and in those circumstances she accepts all invitations, even into hostile territory. She came on Deutsch's CNBC show,The Big Idea, the interview appearing over a chiron reading: "Being Extreme Makes Millions." The host is a blow-dried pretty boy who wears half-glasses down on his nose to create a kind of Michael-Landon-meets-Erkel effect. He asked Ann what her ideal America would look like and she answered: "All the Democrats would be like Joe Lieberman and all the Republicans like Duncan Hunter."

He countered that he meant what kind of place America would be generally, not politically. A joyful place, she responds, safe and prosperous. More tolerant? Yes, definitely, like the mega-churches she lectures in where they are thoroughly diverse and integrated in an unself-conscious way. "What, a Christian America? No Jews, no Buddhists?"

In the course of the next few sentences of repartee, Ann makes a number of points. 1) That a Christian views himself as a perfected Jew. 2) That a Jew has to obey the Law to be in Heaven, but Christians believe they have a "fast track." 3) That this is basic to anyone familiar with the New Testament. 4) That there is nothing offensive in this to Jews. Deutsch, for his part, claims to be a practicing Jew, but says he finds this personally offensive, more appropriate for a Prime Minister of Iran than for an educated woman like Ann.

In fact, the only one exposing blind spots in his education was the host. If he does not know that Christians believe Jews are lacking something by not accepting Jesus as a savior, if he does not know that Jews believe Christians are to one degree or another in error by believing Jesus can save them, he is ignorant of the most basic facts of religious life. By the same token, at this stage in history both sides have concluded that they will not settle the theological differences short of a prophetic or Messianic intervention.

The serious people on both sides also know that they share a broad set of overlapping moral values along with an interest in a wholesome, family-oriented society and culture. If they stand on ceremony and refuse to work together because the other is not catechumenically correct, the result will be that the forces of depravity will divide them and conquer the street. In the meantime, each side chuckles to themselves that they have the spiritual edge. (Ann's view is more amicable than most; many Christians believe the Jews lost their Covenant entirely.)

I once saw a transcript of one of the forced debates that were common in the 13th century, where the king would compel a Jewish scholar to debate a Christian scholar. This particular manuscript did not identify the rabbi involved, but he was pretty fearless, pointing out the excesses of the Crusaders.

At one point the priest says to him:

"What if you are wrong and on Judgment Day God is angry at you for not
accepting Jesus?"

He answers:

"What if you are wrong and on Judgment Day God is angry at you for accepting Jesus? The answer is that as long as you make your best judgment in a sincere way, it is unlikely that a perfectly intelligent and just God will be angry."

To imply that Ann Coulter violated an intellectual norm, a religious norm, a social norm, by explaining the things she did in the manner she did, is simply misinformed -- if not crude religion baiting. It just ain't so. Indeed the contrast between Ann's Christianity and Ahmadinejad's Islam is particularly "striking," to use her adjective of preference. Remember who she used as an example in the sentence before to describe the ideal Democrat? None other than Joseph
Lieberman, the most traditionally practicing Jew in the history of the United States government.

Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events.

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Ann Coulter's dream of a Jew-free America

By Bradley Burston
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/912606.html
Thu., October 18, 2007

From time to time, particularly in the wake of schoolyard shootings, failing markets, failing wars, failing administrations and the like, Americans take pause to take stock, wondering what's at the bottom of the malaise that afflicts their beloved, chronically clueless nation.

What is it, really, that's wrong with America?

If we're taking nominations, I'd like to open the bidding with Ann Coulter.

You may know her as the acerbic, not to say verbally abusive, syndicated columnist whose bare-knuckles conservative punditry raises hackles and ratings across the cable news spectrum.

This month, Coulter waded into the mess first made by Republican White House hopeful John McCain, when he referred to America as a nation founded on the principles of Christianity, indicating that he would prefer to see a fellow Christian in the White House.

Barely a week after McCain's comments, Coulter told an exasperated Jewish talk-show host that in her dreams, heaven - for that matter, America - is a place where everyone is Christian.

Where would the Jews have gone? She went on to explain that that Jews needed to convert to Christians in order to be "perfected," noting that Christians have a "fast track" to God.

Appearing on CNBC's The Big Idea, hosted by Donny Deutsch, Coulter was asked what America would look like if she had her way.

"It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention," Coulter replied. "In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like."

Asked to expand on the theme, Coulter said "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America."

Deutsch, growing at once incredulous and offended, responded "So we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?" to which Coulter answered with a simple yes, later inviting Deutsch to attend church with her.

DEUTSCH: We should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then?

COULTER: Yeah.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Well, it's a lot easier. It's kind of a fast track.
Deutsch then suggested similarities between Coulter's position and that of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

DEUTSCH: "Let's wipe Israel off the earth." I mean, what, no Jews?

COULTER: No, we think - we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.

DEUTSCH: Wow, you didn't really say that, did you?

COULTER: Yes. That is what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws.

A commercial break ensued, during which Coulter asked Deutsch for a chance to explain the comment about "perfecting" Jews. She adamantly turned aside all suggestions that the comment could be offensive to Jews, that it could be construed as hateful or anti-Semitic. "I don't think you should take it that way," she said. "But that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews."

Until recently, I failed to take Ann Coulter seriously. I was wrong.

I was wrong to write off as mere stand-up racism her advice after the September 11 attacks ["We should require passports to fly domestically. Passports can be forged, but they can also be checked with the home country in case of any suspicious-looking swarthy males."]

I was wrong to write off as scattershot shtick her comments against women's right to vote, her suggestion that John Edwards was a "faggot" who should have been assassinated by terrorists, her depiction of Islam as a religion whose whose tenets are "along the lines of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed.'"

I was wrong to see her as some highly intelligent, well-educated, perversely gifted panderer to the lower common denominator. I was wrong to see her as some overqualified infotainment shock jock. I should have taken her seriously.

Ann Coulter is my enemy. Ann Coulter is the kind of patriotic, persuasive, powerful American who is precisely what is wrong with America.

I'll never underestimate her again. Ann Coulter has a plan for the Jews. She has one for Muslims as well. And it's her people who are exactly the kind of Americans who could find the way to try to carry it out.

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Simshalom comments:

Journalists screaming at the mouse on the floor:

Good knowing what's really bugging Brad Burston. Not Hamas. Not Hizbola. Not Mullahs. Not gays. Not assimilating Jews. Not Jews marrying gentiles. None evoke Burston's vitriol, only Ann Coulter in mini-skirt, brittle fake blond hair & cross on neck freak him out. Coulter was baited by Donny Deutsch on his show and guess what she really believes the standard party line of Evangelical Christians. What a surprise, some Christians are really Christians, and have certain beliefs. Woopi-doo! For 2,000 years Jews have known that Christians want to convert them and have managed to resist it. So what are Bradley Burston and Donny Deutsch so huffy and up in arms about? If they would truly learn Torah, practice the mitzvot, and read up on Jewish history they would get some perspective and know the difference between a mouse that roars and real antisemites. Burston and Deutsch demean themselves by acting like the maiden who spots a mouse, jumps on the table and screams. Shame on their silliness!

Labels: Christianity, Evangelism, Missionising

- posted by Izak @ 12:02 AM (0) comments

 
Reflections on Dr. Laura's flip-flops about Judaism
Dr. Laura, God Loves You

by Sara Yoheved Rigler
http://www.aish.com/spirituality/philosophy/Dr._Laura3_God_Loves_You.asp

Judaism is not a fast-food religion.

On August 5, 2003, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, America's most outspoken Orthodox Jew, made a bombshell broadcast to her 12 million radio listeners. She announced that she would no longer practice Judaism.

"I still see myself as a Jew," confessed Dr. Laura, who underwent an Orthodox conversion five years ago. "But the spiritual journey in that direction -- as hardcore as I was at it -- just didn't fulfill something in me that I needed... My identifying with this entity and my fulfilling the rituals of the entity -- that has ended."

As shocking as her rejection of Judaism is the longing glance she cast toward Christianity: "I have envied all my Christian friends, who really, universally, deeply feel loved by God. They use the name Jesus in referring to God... That was a mystery, feeling connected to God."

Some Christian commentators are having a field day. Joseph Grant Swank, Jr., wrote on a popular Conservative website: "Dr. Laura says that she gets from Judaism present-tense what she's always got from Judaism. The cold shoulder. She tried to deny it for years of study and ritual and hoop jumping. But now she cannot deny it any longer. It's a cold religion when it comes to Dr. Laura's appraisal of Judaism and she can't stand in the cold any longer."

It's an old canard. Decades ago a Catholic friend remarked to me: "Well, of course, the Jewish God is a God of law. The Christian God is a God of love." I, who at the time knew almost nothing about the Jewish God, was taken aback as much by the pat formula as by the matter-of-fact way in which he proclaimed it, like a piece of catechism well learned.

Three decades ago, like many assimilated Jews, I didn't know how to respond to my Christian friend. Today, however, having just come home from morning prayers at the Western Wall, where the women around me were praying to "the Jewish God" with such fervor, such devotion, such ardent love, I know exactly how to respond to Dr. Laura.

Is it possible that a religion that has produced such lovers of God as King David, the prophetess Devorah, the medieval poet Yehuda HaLevi, the 16th century mystics of Safed, the Baal Shem Tov, and the women who pray daily at the Western Wall can provide Dr. Laura no avenue of connection to God?

This is the Hebrew month of Elul, which in Hebrew forms an acrostic for the words: "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine." During this month before the High Holydays, the rabbis tell us, "The King is in the field." As my nine-year-old explains: "It means that God is very close to us. He's right here with us."

CLOSENESS TO GOD

The highest union with God that humans can achieve is union of will. To unite one's will with the divine will is ultimate closeness to God.

Even in human relationships, real love entails a uniting of wills, which often requires a submission of one's will to the will of the beloved. That is why real love, as opposed to Hollywood love, requires hard work and renunciation. If you want to go Italian, but your beloved wants Chinese, no matter how romantic the date, oneness will be achieved only if one of you loves enough to say (sincerely): "Whatever makes you happy is fine with me."

In this light, the greatest impediment to a relationship is not really knowing what the other wants. This problem crops up in our family every year on my husband's birthday, when my eagerness to give him what he wants is squelched by his not wanting anything in particular.

This year was different. My inquiry two weeks before his birthday solicited from him the definite response that he wanted an acclaimed four-volume set on the laws of Shabbat. Joyfully, I walked into our local Jewish bookstore and asked for the set.

It was out of print. The bookseller assured me that there wasn't a set to be had in all of Jerusalem, but the publisher was running off a new printing which should, with luck, be out in a month or two. I was crestfallen.

The day before my husband's birthday, I was shopping in the neighborhood of Geula when I passed a bookstore. A firm believer that it never hurts to try, I went in and asked for the set.

The storeowner replied, "I have the very last set in all of Jerusalem. Someone ordered it months ago, and I kept it for him, but he hasn't returned from America. So I'm willing to sell it to you."

Jubilant, I purchased the formidable tomes, and set out to meet my husband who had the car. We had arranged that he would wait for me at the top of the hill, some four blocks away. It was a hot day, and I was already schlepping a half dozen heavy packages. The four-volume set weighed a whopping ten pounds, but as I traipsed up the hill, I felt ecstatic that I could actually give my husband exactly what he wanted.

In the Torah, God told the Jewish people exactly what He wants from us. Far from being "saddled with the burden of the mitzvot," we are privileged to have 613 ways to connect with God. There is no greater demonstration of His love for us than the mitzvot: 613 channels of total connection.

Distinguishing between the "God of law" and the "God of love" is like distinguishing between my lawfully wedded husband and my lover. Ideally, they should be one and the same. In Judaism, the laws are the greatest manifestation of the love, like the laws of matrimony.

The tragic irony of Dr. Laura's spiritual crisis is that not feeling connected to God, she has renounced the very mitzvot that have the potential to connect her to God.

Five years ago, Dr. Laura purchased the right car. If it has not taken her anywhere, rather than junk the car, she would do well to check the immobilizer, check the gas gauge, make sure she has the right key in the ignition.

SLIDING INTO SECOND

Dr. Laura complained to her millions of listeners: "I felt that I was putting out a tremendous amount toward that mission, that end, and not feeling return, not feeling connected, not feeling that inspired."

The sense of connection with God that has eluded Dr. Laura does not come automatically. The pitfall of Jewish observance is that it's hard not to fall into a mechanical performance of mitzvot that are performed repeatedly, daily, sometimes many times a day. To perform the commandments as they are meant to be performed -- consciously, joyfully, focused on the Commander -- is a feat of mindfulness which requires consistent effort and a level of concentration enough to challenge a Zen adept.

Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, a great contemporary sage, writes: "Obviously, when performing the mitzvot mechanically, there is neither mindfulness nor love nor joy."

What does Rabbi Wolbe recommend as an antidote to such mechanical performance of a mitzvah? Not to enter the mitzvah suddenly. Rather, "let us contemplate that the Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself, commanded us in this commandment, and that through it, we are connecting with Him." [Alei Shor, p. 327]

Life is busy. No one -- especially not a famous radio personality and author -- has time to do everything and do it right. Most of us perform mitzvot -- pray, recite blessings over food, etc. -- like a baseball player sliding into second base. We consider it commendable that we take the time to perform the mitzvah at all. The notion that we should take an extra couple minutes and pause before fulfilling a commandment to reflect on the One who has commanded us and to unite our will wholeheartedly with His may seem daunting, but this is the way the mitzvot are meant to be performed.

For example, before reciting the Shemona Esrai, the long prayer a Jew is obligated to recite two or three times a day, Maimonides writes that one is obligated to stop and reflect on the greatness of the God one is about to address. Given that it takes the average Jew anywhere from five to fifteen minutes to recite the Shemona Esrai, isn't it a shame not to take the extra two minutes of reflection before beginning in order to reframe the whole prayer as an exercise of love and closeness?

TAKING HALLAH

I have been religiously observant for 18 years. Three months ago, a woman started giving a course in our neighborhood on the mitzvah of taking hallah. In the Torah, God commands that once we enter the Land of Israel, when we bake bread, we should separate off a small piece of the dough and put it aside. This is one of the three mitzvot that are considered specifically given to women.

Not being the earthy type, I have never felt inclined to bake bread from scratch. With my bread maker, yes. With my husband (a pianist who loves to exercise his fingers by kneading) making the dough, and me just saying the blessing and breaking off a piece of dough, yes. But to take a ten-week course in the single mitzvah of separating hallah, no thanks.

When a friend asked me why I wasn't taking the hallah course, I replied glibly that I'm all air signs, and I'm not the earthy, bread-baking type.

My friend looked at me aghast. "Don't you know that all the blessings of physical abundance come down into the world through the performance of the mitzvah of taking hallah? The mitzvah also effects healing in 14 different ways."

I enrolled in the course, wondering how there could be so much to say about a single mitzvah.

"The mitzvah of hallah is cosmic in its effect," the teacher proclaimed. Every week my jaw dropped lower as she expatiated on the mystic ramifications of this one mitzvah.

Then she announced that the following week a rabbi would be coming in to teach us about the mitzvah's specific requirements in Jewish law. This would take two hours.

Two hours? I couldn't imagine how he could fill up two hours. And, of course, I already knew how to do the mitzvah.

I went to the class anyway. I discovered that I had been doing the mitzvah wrong.

The following week, our teacher announced, she would be demonstrating how to make hallah. I came prepared for a Pillsbury lesson that I didn't need because my husband has the world's best recipe for whole wheat hallah.

The demonstration was a life-changing event.

Now I make hallah once a month, and it's the spiritual highpoint of my month. I start by turning off the phone and announcing that no one is permitted into the kitchen until I've finished; this mitzvah requires total concentration.

Then I give charity, so that all my prayers will be favorably accepted. Then I say a chapter of Psalms, to open up the gates of heaven.

While sifting the flour, I sing, because joy is the foundation of all spiritual success. Then I add each ingredient consciously: sugar for the sweetness I hope to see in my family's life; yeast so that each member of my family will grow and expand; water represents Torah; when measuring salt, which represents rebuke, I fill two tablespoons, then shake some back into the salt container because we should always give less rebuke than we think we should; and as I slowly pour in the oil, I "anoint" each member of my family by name, praying for his or her specific needs.

Kneading is the time to pray. My teenage daughter and I take turns, each of us thinking of people to pray for by name: single friends that they should get married; childless friends that they should have babies; sick people and terror victims that they should have a speedy and complete recovery; people struggling financially that they should have livelihood. My daughter reminds me to add the names of Israel's missing soldiers and of Jonathan Pollard. On and on we knead and pray, with such spiritual focus and intensity, that the kitchen becomes charged.

Now the dough is ready to take the hallah, but the spiritual preparations to perform the mitzvah properly continue. Reading from a laminated sheet prepared and distributed by two Israeli sisters, I pray fervently that my performance of the mitzvah of hallah will repair the primeval sin of Eve. That just as she brought death into the world, I will bring life into the world, nullifying death, erasing the tears from every face.

Now I am ready to perform the mitzvah. I break off a small piece of dough, recite the blessing over the mitzvah, and with both hands lift the piece of dough above my head and proclaim: "Behold, this is hallah!"

My hands are quivering with the spiritual intensity of the moment. With my hands still raised, I utter two more prayers -- one that my taking hallah should be considered as if I had brought an offering in the Holy Temple, that it should atone for all my sins and be as if I am born anew, and the other for the complete and final redemption of the whole world.

It has taken me over an hour to perform this one mitzvah. I feel exalted, tremulous, ecstatic as I used to feel after hours of meditation.

For 17 years, I sporadically (and incorrectly) performed the mitzvah of hallah, while having no idea of the profundity and spiritual potential of the mitzvah. I slid into second base, recited the blessing, broke off a piece of dough -- and felt nothing. It did not connect me to God, except on the most rudimentary level.

The lack was not in the mitzvah. The lack was not in Judaism. The lack was in me.

The mitzvot are an unparalleled spiritual feast. Most Jews have barely tasted their sumptuousness. Connoisseurs know the difference between eating and dining. The latter takes time -- and concentration on the taste of every bite. A connoisseur dining in a five-star restaurant will not complain at how long the food takes to prepare. Nor will he assess the quality of the restaurant by how full he feels when he leaves.

Judaism is not a fast-food religion. Connecting to God through the mitzvot takes time, constant learning and a commitment to moving ever deeper.

My dear sister Laura, I invite you to try again. God loves you so much that He gave you His mitzvot, each one of which is a radiant path to connect to Him.

Please, my sister Laura, come to Jerusalem and bake hallah with me.

Author Biography:

Sara Yoheved Rigler is a graduate of Brandeis University. Her spiritual journey took her to India and through fifteen years of teaching Vedanta philosophy and meditation. Since 1985, she has been practicing Torah Judaism. A writer, she resides in the Old City of Jerusalem with her husband and children. Her articles have appeared in: Jewish Women Speak about Jewish Matters, Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul, and Heaven on Earth.

Labels: Conversion, Conversion to Judaism, Orthodox Judaism

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