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.