[Avodah] Frum Week

[Micha Berger]

Reform Judaism Magazine carried a story by Emily Langowitz about her
attempt to spend a week living as frum woman would. As for her motivation,
to quote, "For seven days, I would do every Jewish ritual I could think
of -- big or small, no exceptions -- to see whether rituals I had never
tried or been mindful of would be meaningful to me."

See <http://reformjudaismmag.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=2854>.

She gives this beautiful description of that halachic Judaism is all
about, which is why I am writing about this here rather than on Areivim:

    The new level of observance I experienced during frum week also
    gave me a different way of connecting to God. Previously I believed
    that some undercurrent of Divinity was in the world around me; to
    experience it I simply needed to enter the world with open eyes
    and wait for God's presence to appear to me. During frum week,
    each action I took was a forced pause of mindfulness of the Divine,
    an awareness that my every deed was meant to advance me toward God,
    regardless of how I was feeling at that moment.

(Conceptions about feminism and the role of women in O pretty much
sabatoged the chance of a week 2.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Our greatest fear is not that we're inadequate,
micha at aishdas.org        Our greatest fear is that we're powerful
http://www.aishdas.org   beyond measure
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Anonymous