Since I got back from New York I have been investigating Judaism. Now this may seem a bit strange to some of my family and friends. I mean, yes, we all know that Margo went bonkers and ran off to New York and married Abraham Issac, but that was just post Grad-School craziness. But now she's back in California so that's all over now, right?
Actually, I am more interested in investigating it now, where I am not fighting all the ghosts that, unfortunately, were all around me in New York. I started attending services with the Temple Beth Torah which holds their services at the base chapel. My first service was Yom Kippur last year, I actually did the fasting for most of the 26 hours. I have really felt so welcome, and there is something that has really touched me in both the service and the self study that I have been doing. I have also been going, off and on to the services at the St. Michael's Episcopal Church with my mom, but as more time has gone on I have found myself less and less able to take communion, and even doing the second readings, the Epistles, makes me feel uncomfortable.
The congregation up here is small, and has a student rabbi that comes up once a month, and for the High Holidays, during the school year. So a lot of my study has had to be on my own. I was doing research this weekend on how to prepare for the upcoming Jewish New Year. I knew this from listening an interview Krista Tippet did on "Speaking of Faith"(now called "On Being") first aired on September 6, 2007 called "Days of Awe" that the month before Rosh HaShana you are supposed to do mental preparation, but was not at all sure how to go about this.
As is often the way of the internet, and meme on Facebook leads to one page which references another page which finally leads to either something wonderful or something absolutely terrifying. In this case it lead to something amazing. From a Facebook post from The Union of Reform Judaism, I went to a page of ReformJudaism.org, and from there I found the blog of Phyllis Sommer, in particular about the upcoming month of Elul.
I am going to try to do as much of this as I can. Pictures, writing, art, not sure how all of this will be, but it should be interesting. I look forward to getting feedback from anyone who reads this, especially as I am very new on this path.
Margo Grace Carr
#BlogElul #Elulgram
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