אני קושית יפה/I’m a Cute Black Girl pg 5

My whole I grew up believing that Judaism was the oldest religion…last Rosh Hashanah was the beginning of year 5782..so that would make Judaism just about 3760 years older than Christianity, right? Not really…turs out that Judaism started after the Romans burnt down a Shul, which would make it about the same age as Christianity. Okay…I am confused….so I guess I have some reading and studying up to do.

Last night we learnt how a Synagogue is set up… – the first building Jews are meant to build when moving into a new community/city is the Mikvah…and not the Shul…the House of Prayer/Study/Mitzvot.

  מִקְוֶה / מקווה‎ is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.

1. A commandment of the Jewish law.
   The fulfillment of such a commandment.
2. A worthy deed.

I didn’t have a Jewish wedding…and I was okay with that…but I am not going to lie and say how I didn’t wish to have my Mikvah Ceremony before the wedding…and to have my husband check to see that he was really marrying me before we said our vows. There are many Jewish Traditions that I feel I have missed out on through the years…but I look forward to embracing them when the time comes and when I can officially perform them.

In a progressive Shul women are recognized to be equal to the man…and that is great and all, but even though I hated how in the Sephardic and Orthodox Shuls women were kept separate from the men and away from the Ark and Torah Scrolls and in many shuls the women’s section was separated with glass barriers, I do miss that tradition and holiness. Last night we discussed how the Temple (Progressive Shul) was set up, and it just seemed so casual. As different as it seems to me right now, I do look forward to being able to go to Shul Services and to be able to congregate with new friends and fellow students.

Every Tuesday and Thursday the 1st hour is spent on learning to read and write and speak Hebrew. Sometimes to say 1 simple phrase there can be 3 different ways to say it…Plural…Male…Female. And now in the new age; gender is such an issue it will be tough to speak Hebrew and not offend people that recognize themselves as a different gender to the one that they appear to be.