Leanne Shawler, Artist

This is the last post in the #31days series, although this might technically be post #32, depending on whether or not you count the index post. You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . Sometimes Christians forget Jesus was Jewish ... ... is Jewish ... ... and will be Jewish ... His words of wisdom have been compared to Hillel, the Jewish sage from 1 BCE, particularly in the area that loving God and loving your neighbor are paramount. His criticisms of those in the Temple, remind me of Jewish thought today: if it's a choice between keeping one of the commandments or saving a life, you save the life. And yes, some of his sayings are quite unJewish, like turning the other cheek and bread being his body... The question is for me, as a Christian: how do I pray to a Jewish Jesus? A Jesus that both called the Jewish people to repentance and to go back to the way God wanted things (to love God, love your neighbor) and radically saw Judaism movi...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . One of my new duties as the senior rabbi's assistant is to help with the Introduction to Judaism class. I got to chatting with someone about how they keep Shabbat. They have friends over for dinner and there is a place for both ritual (like the candle blessing) and conviviality. This is how the earliest Christians gathered: to bless and break the bread in commonality with the Jewish tradition to which they still belonged. His description of a Shabbat dinner inspired a deep longing in me. Putting together a dinner is quite possibly the least fun ever for me, but if the point is ritual and the blessing of being in community together then it is less about stressing out about food prep and more sharing and enjoying. The question is whether I will follow through, like I haven't really done with answering my home phone with "Shalom."

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . Rachel Held Evans' book "A Guide to Biblical Womanhood" and her blog first introduced me to: (A) the (generally) evangelical Christian belief that Proverbs 31 is a model for the Christian wife and mother at home; (B) that this is not how Orthodox Jews use this text. I can say it no better than this interview Rachel had on her blog, so please read it.

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . OK, how cool is this: when I was buying siddurs for myself: one for Shabbats and weekdays and the other for the High Holy Days (which maybe now I'll be able to read as not everything is transliterated in the latter prayer book), I came across this edition: Sorry, these are less than brilliant pictures. I used my iPhone to take them in the early morning before heading off for the day. This is the journal edition. The introduction says it's aimed at youth, but I think this is a brilliant idea for all ages to use, and in fact, the Episcopal Church should steal this and use it for the Book of Common Prayer. This journal edition of the Mishkan T'filah isn't identical to the prayer book of the same name. It has sections and pages removed to make space for the journaling. My current plan is to write my responses in pencil on the page, and then to go over the top with pen illustra...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . Once upon a time, I would have answered that question with up in heaven, beyond the clouds. I would have answered it that way fairly recently. But since EfM (Education for Ministry. I go on about that course a fair bit, I should write about it after these 31 Days are done). Anyway, since EfM and further reading, my understanding of God's kingdom's location has changed. Jesus in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) said the kingdom of God is near. He meant the fulfillment of God's kingdom being restored on earth, and he meant it in an apocalyptic, end of this Age sense. In the Jewish tradition, it is up to the people of Israel to be co-creators of God and restore God's kingdom here on earth. In Hebrew, this is known as tikkun olam , healing the world. Recent Christian thinkers, like Brian MacLaren, have echoed the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John where He declares the kingdo...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . Did you know that the Our Father, also called The Lord's Prayer, is Jewish? And not just because Jesus was Jewish (but yes, he is). It's a prayer christians may say while alone but most commonly we say it as a part of corporate worship: whether it's a Sunday service or as part of a bible study or small group session. It is not my Father in heaven, but our Father. According to Rabbi Benjamin Blech, Jewish prayers are written to be prayed together. Hence the "our"... Also as John Dominic Crossan pointed out in a way less vitriolic book " The Greatest Prayer" , the Our Father is written as much good Hebrew poetry is. Take a look at the psalms: how the second half of the verse restates and changes the first half ... Listen  to my words,  Lord ,      consider my lament. 2  Hear my cry for help,      my King and my God,  ...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . The first Hebrew word I learned (putting aside words that turn out to be Hebrew in origin and I just didn't cotton on to it, like, you know, Hallejulah...) was: ruach. The breath of God over the waters of creation. The Holy Spirit there at creation. I learned it in EfM as we studied the book of Genesis. Holy Spirit. Holy holy holy. The Sanctus has been prayed in Christian services for a very long time. It is in Catholic, Episcopalian, Orthodox liturgies: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. So imagine my surprise when during the Bat Mitzvah service (my first Jewish worship service) and I hear: Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh. Everyone lifts up on their toes with each word. I feel slightly unbalanced and my eyes skip to the English translation ... holy, holy, holy ... could it be? The English translation in the Mishkan T'fi...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . We're going to heark back to the Sh'ma today. Belief, in the Christian tradition, us knowing something is true, with or without sufficient evidence. It is also most commonly stated in the Creeds, which was the early Christian Church's way if defining what was and wasn't heresy. But there is a mystical side to it as well. The first word in the Sh'ma prayer is ... Sh'ma. It is translated as "hear" or "listen", but according to "Walking in the Dust of the Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewish Words of Jesus Can Change Your Life" by Lois Tvarberg, the word means more than being attentive to what God is about to say. The Hebrew language is rich in meaning. The syllables that make up a word add deeper levels of meaning. Sh'ma also means believe. It also means act on these words you hear. This makes Jewish belief an active belief: you hear, believe, and act. Ch...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . In case you hadn't figured it out yet, I am always interested in learning more about the God I believe in. My first image of God was like those described by many others: a distant bearded God in the clouds, although I often prayed to Him when I was scared of the dark. In recent years, thanks to EfM , I've learned more about developing theologies on how folks see God, although honestly some of it was a bit head-scratching and I would lament: "Why can't God just be God? Why do we have to describe what God is?" But we all do to some extent. And I would say that in my personal theology, the least developed part of my understanding of God is God the Father. (Or Mother if you will. Take that, patriarchial society!) The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that is both so faithful to His people and yet ... there's this whole vengeful, genocidal side which is just not pretty or unde...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . I didn't expect to find Judaism helping me out with my rule as an Associate of the Order of Holy Cross. But as the first Yom Kippur service of the morning began, I found myself taken by the sung prayer of confession. An alphabetical list of sins. In the prayer book "Gates of Repentance" that is used in Reformed congregations for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it is summarized in English as: "Who among us is righteous enough to say: 'I have not sinned'? We are arrogant, brutal, careless, destructive, egocentric, false, greedy, heartless, insolent, and joyless. Our sins are an alphabet of woe." Except I'm pretty sure we sang all the letters not just the first part, and with each word, tapped our heart with a fist, in a move that's reminiscent of mea culpa . It is a thousand ways more better (more better?) than the vague confession found in the Episcopal Sunday mornin...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . I actually got asked the other day, not seriously, I think, if I was considering converting to Judaism. I'm sure some of you are saying: Girl, you sure talk about it a lot. There's no denying I'm fascinated by it and love the liturgy but convert? Give up Jesus? So not there. Besides, if I also chose to keep kosher-style, if not totally kosher, then I'd have to give up bacon. And shrimp. So not happening. What I need to do though is stop announcing that I had a non-kosher lunch when somebody at work asks me where I went. "Um, that hot dog place. Are polish dogs kosher?" or "Italian. I had gnocchi with smoked mozzarella and um, er, um, speck." It seems to me like an odd little rebellion of mine. Kind of childish really. And it really isn't polite or kind, especially if my Jewish friend is really missing shrimp or similar. So I promise not to say that any mo...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . The other day Rabbi/Cantor was recording a Torah portion for one of the B'nai Mitzvah students. I overheard and when she was done, I went into her office and said: "That sounded awfully a lot like the same tune for the V'ahavta." (Well, I said Sh'ma actually, but I meant V'ahavta.) Turns out that as the V'ahavta is part of the Torah, when you chant it you use the same tropes to chant it as the rest of the Torah. Rabbi/Cantor showed me how it worked in the printed Torah and the very next day she comes in and gives me some gifts: No, not the challah bread. But a set of Hebrew characters to stick on my fridge, some memory flash cards and a course book on learning Hebrew.  So instead of learning the Sh'ma/V'ahavta by transcribing what I hear, I'll be able to read it -- once I've applied myself to learning it, of course. Pretty cool, eh?

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . I begged for this T-shirt because I love the back so much. (The front has the preschool name on it.)

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . I think the part of the Micah 6:8 verse that strikes me most deeply is: "and walk humbly with your God." So I sat down and did a lectio divina meditation on the phrase. Walking with God is not trailing behind an authoritarian figure, not dancing ahead of One who delights in us even as God would much rather I walk with, alongside of. Not someone of who I demand answers. When I walk with people, I share my heart, my concerns, and my friend shares theirs. God, share your heart with me. Let me be in your heart And I in yours. Speak, your friend is doing her best to listen. Holy breath in, Sacred breath out, Words shared are already lost, But I promised to listen And so I shall.

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . So what is it that makes me declare that Micah 6:8 as my favorite verse. Because it shares so succinctly all that we need to do in acting out our love for God: to act justly - fairness is one of the things that I would call a core value (that it's due to being bullied as a child is beside the point). to love tenderly - another translation has "to show mercy". Or as in the prayer Jesus gave us "as we forgive others". A love that transcends our humanity. and to walk humbly with our God. Not to God, but with . Yeah, I want that. These words of exhortation are elsewhere in the Bible, in different words, from Jesus' New Testament, to Deuteronomy to Isaiah. It's a refrain that God has said again and again to those who believe through various prophets throughout the ages. And even though it's a favorite verse, it's a hard one to live into. I can judge unfairly with t...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . My favorite verse in the entire Christian Bible is not found in the New Testament. No sirree. It's the prophet Micah: This is what the Lord asks of you, only this: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) I discovered this verse during my EfM (Education for Ministry) studies and when I became an Associate of the Order of the Holy Cross (AHC for short), my EfM mentor gifted me a piece of calligraphy with this verse, written by Br. Roy -- and look! It has Hebrew as part of the design. I think that's kind of neat, that it was there long before Judaism became a part of my life. Of course, this is the only loving verse in all of Micah... and there's a really neat diagram showing that on Theologygrams . (I didn't know if it would be cool to link the image here directly. Generally speaking, that isn't a cool thing to do without permission.) I st...

Last weekend saw an exciting update on the icon writing front. One in a good way, one in a bad way. Bad way first. I was adding the "blush" to Jesus' cheek when this happened: The green splotch kind of pointed at by Mary's fingertips is where the layers of flesh color paint lifted right off as I tried to fix an overdo of blush. I had to walk away from the icon and let it dry some before repairing it. You can't even tell I made a mistake! Here is how my icon finished up. I added a couple of layers of lighter paint on the background, but you can't really make that out in the late afternoon light except on the inside of the halo. And here's Helena's at the end of the day. The next is the good way: We are almost done! Next is the halos: gold leaf and red edging! Lots of prayers involved for that.

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . My hunch is that just by that title I've prompted frowny faces on both my Jewish and Christian friends. Maybe not. But you could have knocked me over with a feather at the Shabbabeque this past summer when I saw bread (a large loaf of challah) and wine being raised up during liturgy. Whaaaa---? Of course I read up about it. See the thing is, that the earliest of the Christian Eucharist services were not about the atoning sacrifice of Jesus (and honestly, these days I don't know how I feel about that, but that's a topic for future exploration). Instead it was a re-creation of the "table fellowship" (phrase used by Skarsaune in "In the Shadow of the Temple") that the disciples shared with Jesus. They wanted to remember that, to keep that part of their journey together alive. That last meal together might've been a passover meal, or a Sabbath meal. In any case, ...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . Yesterday, I wrote about how many prayers of blessing there are in the Reformed Jewish liturgy. This is another thing Christian liturgy shares with its sibling (but not as many). Christians open their service with it, for example. Each of the readings end with "Thanks be to God." In exchanging peace, we are blessing each other and God. We even confess to praising and blessing God always: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and every where to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of  heaven and earth. Tomorrow, I'll write about another common liturgical blessing. (Yes, this was the post where the idea had been written down and I was left to go "huh? what did I mean by that." This is my best guess!)

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . In Judaism, being grateful to God, giving thanks to God, is blessing God. Each blessing in Judaism begins: Blessed are You Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe ... Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Haolam... There are a lot of prayers in the Reform service that begins this way. (Beth Israel is Reformed Judaism in case I hadn't mentioned that before). These words are used in the blessing before and after the Torah reading, for example. The words have been running through my head almost as much as the Sh'ma has been. So when it came time after choir practice at my church to say prayers in the round, I began it with "Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Haolam..." translated it for them, and then gave thanks. I had been thinking about starting my prayer that way, but was still debating whether or not to do it when the words just popped out of my mouth! Nobody said anything after our pra...

you can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . For a few years now, I've been all about gratitude. I'm even midway through presenting a series on gratitude at church (started in the spring and will pick it up and finish some time this fall), using the One Thousand Gifts DVD study (see below). It first really made its mark on me when I discovered Ann Voskamp's blog "A Holy Experience". Then I finally read her book "One Thousand Gifts" and it was like a door opening wide for me. The basic theme is this: giving thanks to God for all the blessings in this life. Ann's way is to write them all down, including taking photos where possible. 2012 was the year I wrote down over one thousand gifts that I'd noticed God had sent my way, from moments of natural beauty to moments where life got hard. I started to do this again in 2013, but dropped out a few months ago because I found I wanted to stay in the moment of receiving...

You can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . The last few posts about learning the Sh'ma have been very much cerebral, so now's the time to review the experiential side of things, what it is like to learn and pray the Sh'ma. (Since watching The Big Bang Theory I've been using big words like above as well as "induration" because my arm hasn't quite recovered from getting a flu shot yet (as of writing this a week or ago). I feel very much like Penny as I'm using the words correctly! These things are important when you're married to a biologist.) I started learning the Sh'ma while on retreat in Santa Barbara at the Mt. Calvary Monastery and Retreat House . I practically had the place to myself as it was during the week, so outside of the hours of the Great Silence (between 8:30pm until after breakfast with the monks), I spent time working on this. First came the reflection, which you've spent several days...

Today, we're going to finish (sorta kinda) looking at the Sh'ma prayer.  I am not an expert on this.  you can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism  here . The last part of the Sh'ma prayer as said in the Reformed congregation I work for anyway, is this: "Thus you shall remember to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God. I am Adonai, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am Adonai your God." I've been translating "Adonai" as "the Lord" in previous installments, by the way. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land; out of slavery into freedom. God frees all of us, and all I have to do is remember that the Lord is my God, and remember to love God with all my heart and soul and might, and be holy to my God. Yeah, I can do that. Well, at least try really hard to remember and to love. At least, all this is my perspective. I'm sure if I sat do...

This week is all about the Sh'ma. I am not an expert on this. Also, you can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism here .  Can I pray the following and mean it? "Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead: inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Don't have kids, so am off the hook on the first part. Check. :) As for the rest of this part of the Sh'ma, I feel like I don't have to read it literally. Moses (and God) don't want us to ever ever ever ever EVER forget these two instructions of knowing the Lord is our God and is one, and to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and might. And if that means, repeating the Sh'ma all the time, at home or away, waking or about to fall asleep, so be it. And if there's a chance that...

(Previously on "31 Days of Encountering Judaism" ... I talked about wanting to learn the Sh'ma and started sharing why I could pray this prayer and mean it."  I am not an expert on this. Also, you can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism here .  ) The next part, though, is trickier. (BTW, the translation I'm using is initially from the Reform Mishkan T'filah siddur/prayerbook but then I used my Bible app and I don't remember which translation I used. Oops.) "Take to heart these instructions which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead: inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Let's start with the first line: "Take to heart these instructions which I charge you this day." If we constrain ...

I want to begin this by first saying: I am not an expert on this. Also, you can find an index of all the 31 Days of Encountering Judaism here .  Yesterday, I wrote about why I wanted to learn the Sh'ma, which is possibly as close to a statement of belief as Judaism gets. I realized I agreed entirely with the first line: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one." Yes, God is my God and God is one God, not many (and not three either -- don't get heretical about the Trinity on me!) I thought I was good to go on this (and as I've written some of these posts in advance, this is a two week later update). As part of my job, I helped out at the launch of the "Introduction to Judaism" class, getting people registered and handing out books and such, and lingered for the first half of the class, where I learned that "Yisrael" is for the people of Israel, those of the Jewish faith. There are a couple of ways I can reconcile with this ...

You may remember that Helena and I took a couple of weeks off in order to find a weekend where we could do an entire day and start and finish our icon's faces and hands in one sitting so the color would be consistent. At least this was the plan. We ended up continuing again today (Sunday) after church. This is where we left my icon two weekends ago: Here they are at the end of Sunday. Want to see how we went from Kermit to Mary and Jesus? Keep on reading... (well, looking, this is image intense) Time to stop for lunch! I made French Canadian quiche. (a Quiche Lorraine but with ham steaks Canadian bacon instead of bacon. Geddit?) Made the pastry from scratch too. (mine) (Helena's) That's where we left it Saturday afternoon. The next day Helena joined me at church and sang in the choir even :) (yeah, new haircut for me!) We both commented on how our faces seemed to have mellowed overnight. The strokes were less visible. I don...