Three Things Every Jew Needs to Hear at the Seder This Year
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I have read that someone who becomes a Jew through conversion has a Jewish soul already – and the conversion is just correcting a mistaken birth. Can you give me some insight on this?
Indeed, I have spoken to many converts who have described the feeling of having been Jewish their entire lives.
The idea that all converts already have a Jewish spark comes from a verse in the Torah. On the last day of Moses' life, all the Jewish people gathered together and God spoke to them, saying: "Not with you alone do I seal this covenant and oath. I am making it both with those here today before the Lord our God, and also with those not here today." (Deut. 29:13)
This verse is rather perplexing. Who is the group that God refers to as being “not here today"?
The Talmud (Shevuot 39a) explains that this refers to future converts, whose souls were also at Sinai. (By the way, this helps explain why one of the primary requirements for conversion to Judaism is the acceptance to keep all the 613 mitzvot – just as the Jews did at Mount Sinai.)
A close look at this verse in the original Hebrew reveals something startling. In the first part of the phrase, "but with those here," the last letters of those four Hebrew words actually spell out the name "Yitro." Yitro was the father-in-law of Moses, and the first convert to Judaism following the exodus from Egypt.
Another source for the phenomenon you describe is found in the Talmud. In discussing the laws of conversion. It says: "A convert who comes to convert..." This begs the question – why does it say "a CONVERT who comes to convert"? Rather, it should say, "a GENTILE who comes to convert"! The reason is because the future convert already has a Jewish spark inside of him.
One of the most well-known converts was the Polish nobleman, Abraham ben Abraham. He converted to Judaism in the 18th century, and was sentenced by the church to death. It is said that even before his conversion, unidentifiable feelings, which testified to the greatness of his spirit, would overwhelm him every Shabbat. Rabbi Yoel Schwartz in "Jewish Conversion" quotes him as saying: "Although the nations rejected the Torah, individual members of those nations sought to accept it. Only the refusals of their peers prevented them from realizing their aspirations. The souls of these individuals appear in every generation as converts."
We would be happy to hear from any converts who have experienced this phenomenon.
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I am a Jewish woman who came home! My story with all the messages throughout my life is fairly long and very beautiful. My given name is hebrew. My mother only ate kosher meat during her pregnancy with me. My Father conducted business with orthodox jewish men who said he had a Jewish soul. I grew up in what used to be an orthodox Jewish community. I am jewish in my heart, my soul, how I live, how I feel and how I approach life. Conversion was a means for my coming home. It was for me, by myself as a single woman over 30 years ago. Being at services hearing and reading hebrew prayers comforts me. I was a mashgiach coordinator for my synagogue. I belonged to the chevra kadisha. it all felt right. My child was raised Jewish in a kosher home. She attended JDS and made aliyah last year at 27.
I found my favorite children’s book Smoky the bear in a box of old things. In the front page I had written in it my name, Lisa from right to left. I think I was four or five. That’s always perplexed me as if this was my first nod to my Jewish heart soul. It’s just always been there. I grew up in Iowa! The only thing I knew about Jews was that they killed Jesus. I asked my Sunday school teacher once when I was in second grade why I couldn’t just pray to God directly. Why I had to pray to Jesus because I was scared Maybe he wouldn’t get the message to God. And the answer was because that’s what we do. That whole Jesus thing never stuck with me. I would just sneak my prayers around Jesus when I was a little girl straight to God and wouldn’t tell anybody.
I converted to Judaism 27. years ago. I'm now 73 and looking back at my life I feel that Hashem was gently nudging me all through my life, even in my earliest years, through dreams, experiences, etc. When I emerged from the mikveh the day of my conversion ceremony I felt ,and have always felt, like I was coming home. When I converted my Jewish community said "welcome to the Tribe", but for me it felt like a remembering and returning. Thank you for inviting these comments.
"Not with you alone do I seal this covenant and oath. I am making it both with those here today before the Lord our God, and also with those not here today." (Deut. 29:13)
Despite what the Rabbis invented, this verse was simply referring to the physical future descendants of those same Israelites witnessing Mt. Sinai.
Rabbi, I believe that all souls are created in the likeness and image of our Creator G-d. Was Abraham not born a gentile obtaining a Jewish soul based on the Talmud Noahide laws?
Psalms 62:10, “Men are mere breath; mortals, illusion; placed on a scale altogether, they weigh even less than a breath.”
Hashem said that all humans who want to become Jewish in their hearts become Jews, just as those Gentiles who left Egypt with Moses heard the Torah, becoming Jews. Can any of us correct Hashem with our self-appointed scholars giving oral interpretation?