I'll be back with you on Sunday, but I bring to your attention a fascinating report from JTA about a newly ordained Conservative rabbi, Juan Mejia, born in Colombia from a Converso background. Conversos were the Spanish Jews who accepted outward conversion to Catholicism in Spain prior to the 1492 expulsion. They are also called Marranos. Shavuot is a time when Jews re-accept the Torah, and interestingly that's what is happening too among some Hispanic Catholics in the American Southwest and in South America when they realize their ancestors were Converso Jews who fled Spain long ago, pursued by the Inquisition under the suspicion (often correct) of being secret Jews.
Mejia himself will be pursuing a rabbinic career of outreach to fellow Converso-descendants in the Southwest. Good for him. Excerpt:
Raised as a Catholic in Colombia and educated at Christian schools, Mejia was on his way to becoming a monk when he discovered as a teenager that his family had Jewish roots. His grandfather would recall men gathering in darkened corners to place towels on their head and pray from a strange book.
After a torturous journey, which involved his rejection by the tiny Jewish community in Bogota and several years of study in Jerusalem, Mejia converted and began training for the rabbinate. Now Mejia is dedicating his rabbinate to helping Jewish descendants like himself who want to reconnect with their roots.
I wrote something on the Marrano theme in an earlier entry, in case you missed it: We Are All Marranos Now.
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The use of the term "10 Commandments" is unfaithful to the Biblical text, which provides no number and relates that God disclosed
"utterances" to Moses at Mt. Sinai.
(It is the list in Ex. 32- which includes ritual instructions- which refers to "10".)
The phrase "10 Commandments" is a Christian, especially Protestant, formulation, intended to stereotype the Israelite/Jewish faith as purely legalistic ( a la Paul's demonizing rhetoric).
Please, DK, use JEWISH language on a Jewishly-themed website!
WE ARE ALL GOD'S CHILDREN,JEWISH OR GENTILES,EVERYONE WHO WERE BORN
OF MAN ARE CALLED CHILDREN OF GOD.BUT DESPITE THE FACT THAT BECAUSE
DIVERSITY IN RELIGION,PEOPLE CALL THEIR GOD ACCORDING TO THEIR BELIEF, FOCUSING ON THEIR FAITH IS ALL THAT MATTERS.GOD LIVES INSIDE
OUR HEARTS,AND ONLY HIM KNOWS IF HE IS ENTHRONED AT THE CENTER OF OUR
HEARTS.I CAN CONCLUDE THAT PEOPLE SHOULD NEVER JUDGE HIS FELLOWMAN,
IN THE BIBLE IT SAYS"JUDGE NOT THAT YOU SHALL NOT BE JUDGED...."
THE CELEBRATION OF THE SHAVOUT OR KNOWN TO MANY AS THE GIVING OF THE
10 COMMANDMENTS OF GOD TO HIS PEOPLE IS WORTH CELEBRATING OR COMMEMORATING,WHEN IT COMES TO GOD'S PERFORMANCE TO BRING HIS KINGDOM
UPON THE EARTH,IT SURPASSES OVER ALL HUMAN FEAST BECAUSE OF ITS SACRED
NESS,THE IMPACT INTO OUR HEARTS TO THIS EVENT IS SPIRITUALLY UPGRADING
IF I MAY SAY IT FOR THIS EVENT GOVERNS GOD'S KINGDOM ON EARTH.
THANK YOU.
With all due respect, David, Jews "around the world" do not observe two days of Shavuot. Jews who live in Israel observe the holiday as commanded in the Torah for ONE day. The two days are a "penalty" for those of you who choose to remain in galut.
Shavei Israel is a great organization that sends rabbis to Portugal and Spain to work among conversos (b'nei anousim) who are interested in converting. They also work with groups in various countries who believe they are descended from lost tribes, such as the bnei menashe from India. The head of Shavei Israel is Michael Freund, an American oleh (immigrant to Israel) who runs a political blog in English, Fundamentally Freund.
http://www.shavei.org//en/Default.aspx
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/2
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