A Convert's Tale

With only 2 weeks left in Israel, I knew I had to take advantage of the Shabbats I had left. So off I went to the mystical city of Tzfat in the north.
After a great Shabbat experience flew by, I found myself sitting on the late Sat. Night bus headed back home to Jerusalem.
With my I-pod earphones in, I was ready for a quiet, relaxing long trip... But G-d Had some other plans in Mind.
Jumping on board and plopping onto the seat next to me was a fascinating guy named Shalev.
A musician, Shalev, a father of 12, had lived in Israel for the last 26 yrs. - 17 of them in the city of Hebron.
He had been a victim of 4 terrorist attacks, 1 of them where his car was riddled with 15 bullets and he miraculously emerged unscathed (minus a few cuts).
"G-d Must Really Have a plan for you!" I smiled.
With a twinkle in his eye, he then proceeded to tell me his life story.

Growing up as a Christian in New York, Shalev always was attracted to Judaism.
He really enjoyed the synagogue he visited for his friend's bar mitzvah. He even started learning Hebrew.
One day, he was speaking to his priest at church. "Why don't you ever get married?" he asked. He didn't receive an answer.
Intrigued, but with no encouragement, he slowly dropped his Jewish learning. As life went on, he forgot all about His Jewish faze.
One day in college, he met a Rabbi, and started asking him question after question, renewing his interest in Judaism. But one Q: really hit him hard.
"Do you Rabbis ever get married?" he asked. "Sure, why not?" Answered the Rabbi. "Perhaps it's considered sinful?"

The Rabbi looked at him and said: 'Marriage' in Hebrew, is called Kiddushin - sanctification. Being engaged with the physical world, the Rabbi explained,
is the entire purpose of creation. By elevating the physical world in the proper way, by using it out for the good, its purpose for existing is realized.
On nearly every holy day in Judaism, we sanctify the day over a cup of wine. In Hebrew, this is also called Kiddush.
We reveal the spiritual within the physical,
and we sanctify the spiritual with the physical.
The 2 unite, fused into 1.



Awed at the contrast between the 2 perspectives, Shalev slowly progressed in his Jewish learning and observance until eventually converting...

Now this isn't an attempt to disrespect other religions. Much beauty is to be found in all religions (well, since most came from ours, they
must have some, right? :) What inspired me about Shalev's account, is the highlighting of the beauty of what Judaism teaches us.
The material isn't to be shunned, but to be elevated. Not only that, but through elevating it we can achieve a higher level of G-dly Light than is found even amongst the angels.
But we must engage the world in order to elevate it, not to be lowered by it.
It's true that everything in our world is mixed with good and bad, and either can be highlighted. Every day is a challenge to highlight the good, the holy, in everything we see and come in contact with. As hard as it is, that is our mission as Jews. The Ba'al Shem Tov even taught that a person's desire for the physical, is in essence his soul's desire to extricate the spiritual sparks found in that physical thing.

May this fusion of physical & spiritual lead us to the world's ultimate fusion with spirituality, with the coming of Moshaich. We are taught that during the Messianic era, nothing will really change; only that the spiritual, G-dly core of every physical thing will be revealed as the underlying reality of the world which it truly is.

Have a Shabbat Shalom and a fantastic Kiddush!

-Daniel
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May you be written & sealed for a good & sweet year!