for jewish converts: why did you choose judaism over others?

[autistic alien]

I was raised Baptist and it never really stuck. I studied religions as a kid, but mostly focused on eastern religions -- it wasn't until recently I peeked into Judaism, and found that not only is it incredibly different from what I'd been raised to think, it clicks a lot with me. I'm taking an introduction to judaism class in the fall, meeting with a Rabbi, and trying to ease my way into practicing certain traditions (like Shabbat) to see if it really does work for me.

I know why Christianity doesn't work for me, so I can answer "why Judaism, but not Christianity?" and I'm trying to learn more about Islam so if I decide on Judaism, I can answer questions on why I didn't pick Islam... but I worry though that I'm mistaking "what this religion teaches traditionally" for "what people of this faith believe." The two are often different, especially in liberal sects. (For example, one idea I can't commit myself to believing is "Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven" -- but there's probably at least one Muslim who doesn't believe this literally.)

So, what I'm asking I guess is --
If you converted to Judaism,

• Why did you choose Judaism?
• What other religions did you consider?
• What did you do to rule those out?
• What made you decide against other religions?

If you considered Judaism but decided not to convert to it,

• What did you choose?
• What made you choose that religion over Judaism?
• What made you decide against Judaism?

((I apologize if this is a massive trainwreck of a question oops))

 

[Flankerl]

Hi

Personally I am not a convert but just want to say that we got a couple of converts on the forum but they may not read this till after Tisha B'Av.

Have a nice one and remember at the end of the day an Alien is also just a Mensch.

 

[metis]

So, what I'm asking I guess is --
If you converted to Judaism,

• 1.Why did you choose Judaism?
• 2.What other religions did you consider?
• 3.What did you do to rule those out?
• 4.What made you decide against other religions?

1.It emphasizes freedom of thought, teaches morality, involves a way of living, doesn't deify people, etc.

2.I taught comparative religions for two years and Christian theology for 14 years, so I had a pretty good base for comparison.

3.I just didn't agree with them with the exception that various Buddhist teachings have helped me a lot.

4.see above

 

[autistic alien]

1.It emphasizes freedom of thought, teaches morality, involves a way of living, doesn't deify people, etc.

When you say deify people -- Do you mean like suggesting a person is an incarnation of God? Because that's an idea I've had trouble with, so I like not having that from what I know of Judaism, but the idea of there ever being a humanlike God incarnate messiah throws me off.

Also, when you say morality, is there anything different about the morality taught by Judaism that separates it from different religions for you?

 

[Moishe3rd]

I was raised Baptist and it never really stuck. I studied religions as a kid, but mostly focused on eastern religions -- it wasn't until recently I peeked into Judaism, and found that not only is it incredibly different from what I'd been raised to think, it clicks a lot with me. I'm taking an introduction to judaism class in the fall, meeting with a Rabbi, and trying to ease my way into practicing certain traditions (like Shabbat) to see if it really does work for me.

I know why Christianity doesn't work for me, so I can answer "why Judaism, but not Christianity?" and I'm trying to learn more about Islam so if I decide on Judaism, I can answer questions on why I didn't pick Islam... but I worry though that I'm mistaking "what this religion teaches traditionally" for "what people of this faith believe." The two are often different, especially in liberal sects. (For example, one idea I can't commit myself to believing is "Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven" -- but there's probably at least one Muslim who doesn't believe this literally.)

So, what I'm asking I guess is --
If you converted to Judaism,

• Why did you choose Judaism?
• What other religions did you consider?
• What did you do to rule those out?
• What made you decide against other religions?

If you considered Judaism but decided not to convert to it,

• What did you choose?
• What made you choose that religion over Judaism?
• What made you decide against Judaism?

((I apologize if this is a massive trainwreck of a question oops))

I should save this response. I'm pretty sure that I have posted it elsewhere but, here I am again...

I was raised a well churched Episcopalian. My great grandfather, the original progenitor of my name, was an Episcopalian minister in Baltimore. My late uncle, after whom I was named, was the Episcopalian bishop of Alabama and the Gulf Coast. My mother, she should live good and fulfilling years, served in every position that she was able in the church. My late father was on the board of the church and of the local Episcopalian private school. One of my brothers, at age 50, changing from a very successful career as a Vice President in General Dynamics, became an Episcopalian minister and has a parish in Massachusetts. We all sang in the choir; were acolytes; part of the youth group and went to Sunday school. The church was a central part of our life.
When I was about 11 years old, I asked my family minister about the Resurrection and the Trinity. I told him that I didn't get it. He said "I don't think it's meant to be taken literally..." This blew my little mind and thus began my slippery slope... By the time I was 16, I was already reading about Eastern religions and New Age philosophies. By the time I was 18, I was fully embracing hippiedom in full flower and form - sex, drugs, and rock and roll (and much music that I really liked); I accompanied these hedonistic explorations with a keen interest in all things spiritual.
As I hitchhiked my way back and forth across North America, I danced with the Hare Krishnas and read their Bhagavad Gita As Is. I later read the whole Ramayana in English. I read the Vedas and the Upanishads. I read Pantajali's yoga sutras. I visited many communes including the Farm in Tennessee.
I studied "The Way," a very intense Fundamentalist Christian Cult. I meditated on the Guru MaharahJi the little fat Indian boy who was the Divine Light Mission, receiving the "secret" knowledge. I played with the Wiccans, learned about Druidism and danced naked under the Moon. I engaged in peyote and psilocybin mushroom spiritual rituals. I Sat with the late Chayom Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist Master at Naropa Institute in Colorado. I studied Tai Chi Chuan with Maggie Newman. I read all of Carlos Castaneda; Alan Watts; the Baba Ram Dass; Herman Hesse; Doris Lessing; Idries Shah, and everyone else... And the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tsu. I became adept at the I Ching, Tarot and astrology. I studied parapsychology. I learned Taoism and EST and Silva Mind Control. I learned the various schools of Buddhism and tried Zen. Sensory Deprivation tanks... Tantric Sex...
Probably a few other things that do not come immediately to mind...

After college, I joined a cult in San Francisco that studied the various teachings of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Nicoll and Collins... A Fourth Way School as it were... I kept that up for about five years, studying everything under the sun from Homer to Socrates to the bible to the Koran to the Christian schools of monasticism and architecture to Shakepeare to music - all of the esoteric ideas behind all and everything...

And, one thing I took away from all of this was that we all choose to be born as what we are; who we are; and what religion we are born into...
And, that in order to fulfill one's spiritual destiny one should study and practice their own religion - go whole hog and pay the postage...
So I did.
I joined my local Episcopalian Church; was on the Vestry; was a Lay Minister; went to Bible Study every week; taught Sunday School; sang in the choir; and got involved in the church hierarchy and conventions. My minister was a young evangelical type who went on to "revive" various churches (*An aside - How utterly odd. I just Googled him to find out what happened to him and I find that he was "suspended" in 2006 in Florida for having a long time affair with, obviously, someone in my parish from back in 1986. The article described him as a liberal priest. Not the man that I knew... Life is strange...)
At the same time, my wife, who was Jewish, was doing the same in her Conservative Synagogue.
And I, being the ecumenical sort, would accompany my wife and son to the synagogue on Saturday.
As time went by, having again studied the new testament and inquired and read and learned and looked at everything from all sides, I began to give up on Christianity. It was obvious to me that Jesus was not god and that he never claimed to be. It was also obvious, with my very limited knowledge of Judaism, that the whole idea of Jesus being the Messiah bore no relationship to what Moshiach is or will be in Judaism. It simply didn't make any sense.
And, G-d pulled me to Judaism. There were countless "random" events that were clearly the Hand of G-d directing me (and my family) to be Jewish. It was "basheirt." (Meant to be.)
As the years went by, I converted and we became ("ultra") Orthodox Torah observant Jews. And my children and grandchildren are all the same. It's a good life.

I explored many things over my young years and, it wasn't so much that I decided not to be Christian - in spite of my convictions that the Christian Church got it all wrong; Jesus is just all right by me.... - it was much more that G-d chose me to be Jewish.

 

[Agricola aka Pam34]

So, what I'm asking I guess is --
If you converted to Judaism,

• Why did you choose Judaism?
• What other religions did you consider?
• What did you do to rule those out?
• What made you decide against other religions?

this is long, sorry.

I was raised in the non-instrumental church of Christ - if anybody knows what that is! Fundamentalist and proud of it. By the way, they don't like being called a 'denomination'. In their opinion, they are the True Church and everybody else isn't.
So what I did FIRST, was leave.
That took a while, because being raised in the coc is a bit like being brainwashed by fear. When any little transgression, even inadvertent ones, of any major or minor matter, even unwritten ones, can send you straight to Hell - with a picture of God as someone hanging over you constantly just waiting to catch you doing something you shouldn't, all you learn is 'fear'. The coc also isn't very fond of people who have questions that aren't easily answered by a cherry picked Bible verse.
The reasons I thought I was leaving for, may not be the underlying reasons I actually left, but fear was a big part of it. I guess I just got totally tired of being afraid. A god who's main characteristic is playing 'gotcha' isn't a god, that's a sadist. Once I realized that the God I learned about in the coc simply couldn't really BE 'God', I was on my way out the door, as soon as I could muster up the courage to do so.

It's also not the god most Christians would recognize, either. But I had to get well away first, before I could look back and see that.

So after a few blessed years of being 'nothing really', I didn't much like that, either by the way - it was lonely. I started to read up on religions generally, the history of the Christian church, archaeology, and anything else that attracted my attention at the time which seemed useful or interesting. I took a comparative religion class. I talked to people of various denominations, and I thought a lot.

One thing that was drummed into me by the coc (and an attitude that hung around far too long) was that it was vital to be 'right'. I had realized that the coc wasn't 'right' but I still had this notion that it was not only possible and necessary to be 'right', but that (therefore) surely SOME denomination (or some religion) was actually really 'right' and had the 'Truth'. (The capital T is important)

So I was hunting (I realized) to find out which religion was 'right' (shades of Joseph Smith here). I kind of expected (or hoped) that the angel Gabriel would appear and say something like 'Be an Episcopalian!' or something (because then I wouldn't be responsible for choosing by myself and possibly getting it wrong somehow - that coc upbringing hung on very tenaciously).

So of course I was reading about Judaism, because Judaism just HAD to be 'right' in order for Christianity (of whatever denomination) to be 'right'. And since Jesus was talking to Jews almost exclusively, whatever he was teaching had to be intelligible to Jews. So I needed to know what those Jews thought, so I could understand what Jesus meant.....do you see where I am going?

Anyway, I studied myself right out of Christianity altogether. Judaism may or may not be 'right', but Christianity took a left turn with that whole incarnation thing. It just won't fly with Judaism, as a messianic expectation, or as anything at all. And then there's the Trinity concept! Ridiculous really. God is one/unique or God isn't 'god'. And once you start personifying aspects, why stop at three? Why not 100? Or infinite? (that's kind of the Hindu view isn't it?)

Nothing against Jesus as presented in the gospels,really. But he isn't 'God' and probably never meant to claim it. The 'Christ' of Paul etc is unrecognizable (nearly) as a Jewish concept - I can kind of understand what Paul was going for, but I don't agree with him, if that helps.

So all that is why NOT Christianity. Once you rule out the Trinity and the divine status of Jesus, you don't have much left of it. It's very PRETTY (especially the Catholic and Orthodox varieties) but I don't find it useful personally and it is problematic, in my opinion, as a useful power in society.

As for why Judaism - well, it resonated with me. Plus, it lets you argue (it practically insists on it), and will entertain any and all questions (and argue about them) which is an intellectual attitude I personally found extremely refreshing and liberating - and attractive.

I did read up on some other non-Abrahamic faiths (and on the other big Abrahamic faith, too - there's a lot to like about Islam, really, but I can't feel comfortable with the 'submission' thing). Buddhism is interesting, Hinduism is interesting, Baha'i is interesting, and oh I could TOTALLY be Sikh - love especially the egalitarian genders - but none of those spoke to me nearly so much as Judaism did and does. Maybe that's because of early exposure to all those stories in the 'Old Testament', but it is home and those eastern faiths would always be strangers.

Judaism has all the things I value and few of the things I don't, I suppose. I value intellectual honesty. I value tradition. I value strong family bonds (breaking the bonds of family over my conversion was probably the hardest thing of all). I love the sheer length of history. I love the whole raucous variety of commentaries. I love that the study never ENDS. I love the autonomy of self...and we have holidays! All the time!

Are there negatives? Sure! I am stuck with all the Jews I can't stand, because hey, we are a tribe and you can't pick and choose your relatives. I'm a minority everywhere I go, unless I move to Israel (a possibility). There's this whole irrational antisemitism attitude, which is both annoying (mostly) and scary (less often, but pretty heavy-duty scary). But part of converting is accepting the good and the bad that goes with it.

Most of all, being Jewish makes me happy. Joyful. Deeply, emotionally, fundamentally full of joy - optimism, hope, you name it. AND it has made me SUCH a better person! I am more generous, nicer - all good things. Of course, I'm not perfect - but I no longer think that 'perfect' is something I need to be.

 

[Moishe3rd]

So, what I'm asking I guess is --
If you converted to Judaism,

• Why did you choose Judaism?
• What other religions did you consider?
• What did you do to rule those out?
• What made you decide against other religions?

this is long, sorry.

I was raised in the non-instrumental church of Christ - if anybody knows what that is! Fundamentalist and proud of it. By the way, they don't like being called a 'denomination'. In their opinion, they are the True Church and everybody else isn't.
So what I did FIRST, was leave.
That took a while, because being raised in the coc is a bit like being brainwashed by fear. When any little transgression, even inadvertent ones, of any major or minor matter, even unwritten ones, can send you straight to Hell - with a picture of God as someone hanging over you constantly just waiting to catch you doing something you shouldn't, all you learn is 'fear'. The coc also isn't very fond of people who have questions that aren't easily answered by a cherry picked Bible verse.
The reasons I thought I was leaving for, may not be the underlying reasons I actually left, but fear was a big part of it. I guess I just got totally tired of being afraid. A god who's main characteristic is playing 'gotcha' isn't a god, that's a sadist. Once I realized that the God I learned about in the coc simply couldn't really BE 'God', I was on my way out the door, as soon as I could muster up the courage to do so.

It's also not the god most Christians would recognize, either. But I had to get well away first, before I could look back and see that.

So after a few blessed years of being 'nothing really', I didn't much like that, either by the way - it was lonely. I started to read up on religions generally, the history of the Christian church, archaeology, and anything else that attracted my attention at the time which seemed useful or interesting. I took a comparative religion class. I talked to people of various denominations, and I thought a lot.

One thing that was drummed into me by the coc (and an attitude that hung around far too long) was that it was vital to be 'right'. I had realized that the coc wasn't 'right' but I still had this notion that it was not only possible and necessary to be 'right', but that (therefore) surely SOME denomination (or some religion) was actually really 'right' and had the 'Truth'. (The capital T is important)

So I was hunting (I realized) to find out which religion was 'right' (shades of Joseph Smith here). I kind of expected (or hoped) that the angel Gabriel would appear and say something like 'Be an Episcopalian!' or something (because then I wouldn't be responsible for choosing by myself and possibly getting it wrong somehow - that coc upbringing hung on very tenaciously).

So of course I was reading about Judaism, because Judaism just HAD to be 'right' in order for Christianity (of whatever denomination) to be 'right'. And since Jesus was talking to Jews almost exclusively, whatever he was teaching had to be intelligible to Jews. So I needed to know what those Jews thought, so I could understand what Jesus meant.....do you see where I am going?

Anyway, I studied myself right out of Christianity altogether. Judaism may or may not be 'right', but Christianity took a left turn with that whole incarnation thing. It just won't fly with Judaism, as a messianic expectation, or as anything at all. And then there's the Trinity concept! Ridiculous really. God is one/unique or God isn't 'god'. And once you start personifying aspects, why stop at three? Why not 100? Or infinite? (that's kind of the Hindu view isn't it?)

Nothing against Jesus as presented in the gospels,really. But he isn't 'God' and probably never meant to claim it. The 'Christ' of Paul etc is unrecognizable (nearly) as a Jewish concept - I can kind of understand what Paul was going for, but I don't agree with him, if that helps.

So all that is why NOT Christianity. Once you rule out the Trinity and the divine status of Jesus, you don't have much left of it. It's very PRETTY (especially the Catholic and Orthodox varieties) but I don't find it useful personally and it is problematic, in my opinion, as a useful power in society.

As for why Judaism - well, it resonated with me. Plus, it lets you argue (it practically insists on it), and will entertain any and all questions (and argue about them) which is an intellectual attitude I personally found extremely refreshing and liberating - and attractive.

I did read up on some other non-Abrahamic faiths (and on the other big Abrahamic faith, too - there's a lot to like about Islam, really, but I can't feel comfortable with the 'submission' thing). Buddhism is interesting, Hinduism is interesting, Baha'i is interesting, and oh I could TOTALLY be Sikh - love especially the egalitarian genders - but none of those spoke to me nearly so much as Judaism did and does. Maybe that's because of early exposure to all those stories in the 'Old Testament', but it is home and those eastern faiths would always be strangers.

Judaism has all the things I value and few of the things I don't, I suppose. I value intellectual honesty. I value tradition. I value strong family bonds (breaking the bonds of family over my conversion was probably the hardest thing of all). I love the sheer length of history. I love the whole raucous variety of commentaries. I love that the study never ENDS. I love the autonomy of self...and we have holidays! All the time!

Are there negatives? Sure! I am stuck with all the Jews I can't stand, because hey, we are a tribe and you can't pick and choose your relatives. I'm a minority everywhere I go, unless I move to Israel (a possibility). There's this whole irrational antisemitism attitude, which is both annoying (mostly) and scary (less often, but pretty heavy-duty scary). But part of converting is accepting the good and the bad that goes with it.

Most of all, being Jewish makes me happy. Joyful. Deeply, emotionally, fundamentally full of joy - optimism, hope, you name it. AND it has made me SUCH a better person! I am more generous, nicer - all good things. Of course, I'm not perfect - but I no longer think that 'perfect' is something I need to be.

Nice!
And - "stuck with the Jews!" Indeed.
I suspect that someday we will make Aliyah and move to Israel.
I do remodeling and repairs. So, besides work and money and distance from my children and grandchildren - having rude Israeli Jews who would prefer not to even pay me... has scared me from moving to Israel.
Yes, I know it's a false stereotype - I felt the same about Lakewood, NJ until I spent much time there and, having been to Israel many times, I know that it is also wonderful.
Still, getting "stuck with the Jews" resonates....