The Spirit of Welcoming

I was recently asked to participate in an online dialogue with another Reform rabbi, Rabbi Stephen J. Einstein, of Congregation B’nai Tzedek, Fountain Valley, CA, responding to the question, “Should the Reform Movement Actively Encourage Conversion?” In a four week program, entitled, Eilu v’Eilu, Rabbi Einstein and I wrote four essays: the first week, we answered the question blindly, without benefit of seeing the other’s response; the second week, we reacted to each other’s statements; the third week, we answered questions from community members; and the fourth week, we summed up our positions. Since it says a lot about who we are at Ohef Sholom, I thought it would be worth your reading. So, following is the first essay I submitted. For those interested in the entire discussion, it can be accessed at http://urj.org/torah/ten/eilu/.    

     And Ruth said: Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God. (1:16-17).

     The first “conversion” to Judaism is often attributed to the Moabite, Ruth. For following her husband’s untimely death, Ruth beseeches her beloved mother-in-law, Naomi, to let her remain with the Israelites and live as a member of the Jewish people. In her few, heartfelt words, still among the most moving and powerful of all of our sacred texts, Ruth casts her lot with our community, accepting all its responsibilities and privileges forever more.

     The story of our matriarch, Ruth, teaches us much about what it means to choose to live a Jewish life. Ruth is attracted to Judaism through her husband’s family, particularly through her mother-in-law, and finds in it meaning, fulfillment and love. So compelling is Judaism to her that she determines, through her own experience and through the acceptance of those closest to her, that no other faith, people or path makes sense for her any longer. Simply, she becomes a Jew by virtue of being a Jew.

     Her story is familiar to many of us. It is what many of our own loved ones, friends and members of our Temple communities call their “homecoming,” the fulfillment of their destinies from the happenstances of their birth to the