Choosing a Jewish Life, Revised and Updated: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends

Today, the phrase “the chosen people” is often paired with its complement, “the people who choose.”

Family is the paradigm for Jewish peoplehood, an anchor of belonging, recognition, and love.

Jews have never believed themselves possessed of the only “true” faith or exclusive pathway to God, which is why Judaism was never a missionary religion. Since the rabbis taught that all the righteous among the nations could attain “the world to come,” there was no need to save the souls of non-Jews; their own religions gave them access to the Holy

Perhaps one reason why Judaism locates its spiritual center in the Torah is because its study is so firmly grounded in human relationships.

One uniquely Jewish approach to Torah is midrash—the imaginative process of interpreting the Bible. A variant of the Hebrew word for “search out,” midrash is not a single book but an entire literature that supplies answers to questions that the Bible does not answer, such as “Why did Cain kill Abel?” Studying midrash opens Jewish texts in wonderful

As a Jew-by-choice, you inherit four thousand years of Jewish history, which is not just an academic or esoteric pursuit but a living presence.

Judaism defies definition as a religion pure and simple. Unlike other religions, Judaism also refers to a civilization and a culture. The Jews have been called a nation, a tribe, a race, a folk, an ethnic group, and the “people of the book.”

you perform a mitzvah by giving someone else the opportunity to do the mitzvah of helping you find your way.

“God asks for the heart, and we must spell out our answer in terms of deeds.”