The Lamb Will Lie Down with the Lion

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

 

Lambs. It is a miracle in our day that there is an animal so lovely as a lamb. It stands on 4 wobbly youthful legs with knobby knees, and cries softly "Baaaaahhhhh..." and is so gentle and beautiful. I understand totally why the Prophets of the Torah chose being a shepherd of these animals as their occupation.

 

When I was a modern shepherd, a pet sitter, I took a dog for walks who was of the Labradoodle dog breed.  He was a cross between a standard Poodle and a Labrador Retriever, and he looked just like an adorable little lamb with locks of curly hair that I could run my fingers through. His name is Tripp and his owners are a wonderful family who love him and even gave him his very own room in the house where he lives so he could feel nurtured. He was my little lamb.

 

It is the lamb that will lie down with the lion when the Mashiach comes and complete peace will come to the Earth. This animal, the lamb, is my favorite animal--it is a kosher animal. It has cleft hooves and it chews its cud. These are the Torah's 2 requirements for what a kosher animal must have. I can so imagine how happy the life of a Prophet must have been to care for lambs and watch them grow into sheep. This animal is delightful. I think it is miracle that there is such a flawless animal among all of Adonai's creatures.

The Goodness of Masorti Jews

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

 

It is a miracle that I am still alive and that I can use my time to pray for others who are sick so they stay alive as well. I pray 3x daily. All Jews are obligated to pray and to try to find a minion (a group of 10 or more Jews) to pray with. I pray with Masorti Jews, that is Jews of the Conservative Jewish denomination. We sweetly sing in Hebrew to Adonai, our God, and praise and worship Adonai in all of our services at our Synagogues. When I converted to Judaism, I signed a contract that said I would pray. That I would pray in a Synagogue or at home. I desire to pray with other Jews, and also pray at home. Praying, for Jews in my denomination, is a social activity. We as Conservative Jews are a very inclusive and are a communicative group of people, sociologically.

 

The women sit in egalitarian fashion with the men in the Synagogue. We are not separated in our seating the way they are in the Orthodox Shuls. The women are included in the prayer service in all ways as equals to the men. We as women, can become Rabbis, can have a bat mitzvah, carry Torah and participate in all Torah duties; are honored to read Torah on the bemah, wear ritual clothing: tefillin, tallit katans, tallit gadols, and kippot, and perform worship in all ways the same as the men.

 

And yet, choosing the word "conservative," as in Conservative Judaism, means that we exist to conserve the traditions. We however, do not conserve any hateful, fascist, discriminatory "traditions." Any trace of evil and injustice, that is masquerading as a supposed "tradition," we have thrown out in the garbage where it belongs.

Yes, when the Messiach comes, He/She will be very glad that women--half the human race, are being treated inclusively as equal humans, an equal gender, with the men, in our religious Masorti Jewish denomination. It is a miracle that there is something like this that is striving to be so perfect in so many ways. The essence of Judaism, the "truth," is to always to strive for improvement.

Wearing Priestly Clothing to a Synagogue

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

 

Orthodox Jewish service tomorrow--it is down the block. I was told by a former member of that shul that I had better wear a skirt there, or else. "You better cover up." I have always been modest in my dress. But how I feel is that wearing a skirt is not very modest. I wear pants most of the time, but I like once in awhile to wear a long skirt. There is no rule in the Torah or Mishnah that forces a woman into a skirt when she goes to a Shabbat service. I like to wear skirts when I go out to a Synagogue--sometimes I do and sometimes I do not. I feel more dressed up wearing a skirt than wearing pants. But I feel more protected in pants--my physical agility is better and I could defend myself better if I needed to.

 

When I was a young girl of 11 years old, I wrote up a petition for the girls in my school to be allowed to wear pants to school, and got hundreds of students in my grade school to sign it. It was a petition that allowed girls in my school to wear pants instead of skirts. Even on cold wintry days we had to come to school in skirts. It was the school rule that girls must only wear skirts to school. Pants were not allowed. The petition was honored and we were allowed to wear pants from then on to our grammar school classes. This was in 1970. My Rabbi who is a woman, wears pants sometimes and skirts sometimes on the bemah when she leads a Shabbat service. It is her choice what she wears. She does what she wants to do--it is between her and God. It is not up anyone else or anyone's so-called standards of social norms.

I love to wear skirts. I do it because I love the feeling of freedom a loose long skirt gives my legs and body. My first Hebrew name was Nisha before I became Batyah. One meaning of Nisha in Hebrew means "to feminize." I love to look feminine and prefer wearing dresses and skirts to a synagogue because I like to look my best when worshipping G-d--I do this for G-d; and to look my best for my fellow congregants who see me. I like to look dressed up, a bit fancy, and well-groomed. It is all a choice and we have freedom and choices--my choice is to look my best and I look very nice in dresses and skirts; and some pants outfits are dressy as well. It is all about dressing to look good, to be appealing, and to please oneself as well as others. When one goes to a synagogue, it is very lovely to look around at all the nicely dressed people who care about the way they look. We are dressed respectfully to worship G-d and take pride in our appearance. This is the way it should be.

My Family Is a Miracle In My Life

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

 

My family is a miracle in my life. I want to talk about my lovely 15 year old niece, and her strong and stately brothers and older sister, Emily.

 

My niece's birthday is coming up at the end of March--she will be 15 years old. She will be a sophomore at her high school where she excels in subjects like the sciences, and math. She was tutored in mathematics when she was younger and she loves numbers. I was able to let her know that in Judaism, numbers mean something. Each Hebrew letter has a number that corresponds to it. She is a very deep thinker and will wonder about each number and give them more significance in her life now that they are associated with Judaism--and she has this knowledge. I told her that I love numbers too. I love to play games with numbers--I add up house addresses whenever I am passing them on the street, and I created my own number game using my digital watch and its numbers as they change with time. She has excitement too, about numbers. Numbers--they are exciting. My nephew Jacob took up Calculus 2 as a Freshman at college. He once told me not to pay a waitress's restaurant bill twice in a restaurant when I took him out for a juicy piece of baked salmon. I had forgotten that the bill was already paid!

 

My other nephew Joseph wears the multi-colored coat in the family. He is a media specialist and he creates websites, and other computer image art, yes, just like his Aunt Batyah. He looks just like his father, and lives with his Dad. He used to drive a pick up truck. I remember asking him when he was about 5 years old what type of car will he drive and he said "I want a pick up truck!" He is very active, has his own girlfriend and is attending Northern University in DeKalb IL. All the children of my family are in school somewhere, learning, and also working at employed positions. My niece Emily who is also in college, is the night manager at a Subway Restaurant in DeKalb. My sister has her hands full working everyday as a teacher's assistant and then taking care of a family as a single mom.

 

I am very lucky to have a big family with lots of active people in it. I look forward to giving them gifts on Purim and I like to send my nephew Jacob books in the mail. I am so lucky to have this extended family situation. I consider myself one very blessed Aunt. I love my family and hope they feel like they are loved by me. I wish the best for everyone.