Lisa’s Adoption of Judaism

January 20, 2012 · Filed Under Baum's Blog 

Earlier this week Rabbi Barr and I had the privilege of welcoming an extraordinary individual into the Jewish community.  Lisa has been an active participant in OurJewishCommunity.org for the past few years and has really embraced learning about Judaism.  After several conversations and much reading, Lisa was ready to be officially welcomed into the Jewish community.  While this is often called “conversion” to Judaism, Rabbi Barr and I really like the word “adoption.”  Lisa adopted Judaism that day and we, the Jewish community, adopted and welcomed her.

I want to share with you one of Lisa’s extremely powerful and thought-provoking essays that she wrote during her process of adopting Judaism.  Stay tuned for a second essay by her soon!  You can also read about Tom’s and Bob’s adoption of Judaism.

Before I share Lisa’s writing, I do want to acknowledge that there are many requests from participants in our online community for online conversions, and this is not something we can generally help with on an individual basis.  The requests we get far outweigh our resources, and that is why over the course of four years we have only worked with a total of three individuals on this long process.  Please know that although we won’t be able to work individually with those of you who want to formally adopt Judaism, you are welcome to still participate in our online community.

Lisa writes:

I was born and raised in the dark hills of Appalachia in Eastern Kentucky. One of the most religious states even in the Bible belt, I was born into the one Kentucky family that had not a lick of interest in religion.

My father worked 8 to 16 hour days in a carbon plant. Years of swing shift and shoveling coal from train cars into the bakers left him uninterested in spending any time off work in a hard church pew. My Mom had long ago soured on organized religion when the local Methodist church had failed to help her family out during a dire crisis. About the most religious thing my Mom ever said to me was, “You better pray that stain comes out of your new school shirt!” Despite the lack of religion in my household it was everywhere around me! There was a church on every corner. I began to wonder about those churches and God from an early age. This is how I remember it…

The smell of Camel cigarettes mixed with axel grease and Old Spice meant I was near my Uncle Gene. I dearly loved my Uncle Gene. He was a quite man, a railroad man. Handsome in that dark Appalachian way, he had a close trimmed beard and moustache topped with a shock of coal black hair. His grey eyes twinkled when he smiled and he smiled a lot. The cigarette was ever present in the left corner of his mouth.

One cool Sunday morning in October, I sat in the garage with Uncle Gene while he pounded away on something. Whack! Whack! Whack! Thud!
“Owwww!” Uncle Gene began to shake his thumb and dance in place. A stream of cuss words poured out until he could get himself under control. He let out a long sigh,”Sorry ‘bout that.” I sat quietly. I decided to use distraction to help him out.

Out the South window of the garage you could see the orange brick of the Nazarene church. Off to the East was the big white Baptist church.
“Uncle Gene, which one of them churches do you think is right?”
Gene stared at me,” How old are you?”
“Seven”
“He shook his head and looked at his thumb,”Cain’t say as I would know.”
“Well, “I persisted,”Both has a sign that says it’s “The House of God”. Which one of them houses do you think God went to today?”
“Kid, you got me! It’ll take a smarter fella than me to know that!”

At just that moment my Aunt Helen rounded the corner into the garage.
“Hey Helen! Which…”
“Awww… I wouldn’t if I was you.” Uncle Gene warned but it was too late I had started.
A little more sheepishly I started again,”Hey Helen, which one of them “Houses of God” do you think God went to this morning?”
Helens eyebrows shot up in surprise then her gaze narrowed first casting daggers at Gene then turning her attention to me. She held her voice calm and steady.
“God is at BOTH the Nazarene church and the Baptist church this morning. In fact, God is everywhere even in this garage!”
I must’ve looked surprised ‘cause she repeated that part,” That’s right, God is even here in this garage.”

I waited a moment before I asked, “Has he been here all morning?”
“Yes…” she nearly purred at me.
I turned and looked at my Uncle Gene and burst into laughter. “Boy, Uncle Gene, you better hope he didn’t hear what you just said!”

It all kinda happened quick from that point. I just remember Uncle Gene laughing and saying something about me being able to “talk the hind leg off a dog” and the pain as Helen led me by my pigtail back to the house all the while mumbling something about it would be a miracle if God didn’t strike the whole lot of us dead on the spot.

Next thing I knew I was seated at the kitchen table with a fried bologna sandwich and an ice cold Mt. Dew. PLOP. Helen sat a stack of books in front of me. She lifted my chin til our eyes met.
“Now sit here quietly and entertain yourself. Just hush for a while!” I nodded my head.

It’s funny, you never know when your whole world is getting ready to change.

I looked at the books. They were written by two young Jewish men Bob Kane and William Finger. They had created a main character that was born to great wealth, suffered intense loss and emerged with a desire to make the world a better place, to right the wrongs. A man who always did the right thing, not the easy thing… a hero. I was hooked. I read and reread each story. I didn’t just skim the stories I absorbed them, internalized them. I wanted to be…The Batman.

The next logical step then when you are seven is to play Batman. The cape was easy. I had to come up with rules though. Every game has rules. What were the rules of Batman? I came up with five rules or guidelines for how to be Batman.

Rule #1: Do something. In the face of Evil and despite the odds, Batman always acts.
Rule#2: Seek Justice. Batman is not about revenge. It is about Justice.
Rule#3: Study! Batman’s only superpower is his mind! He must study and learn all that he can. You never know when some arcane piece of knowledge may save your life!
Rule#4: Treat others with respect.
Rule#5: Believe you can make the world a better place! Bruce Wayne (Batman’s alter ego) was wealthy and he constantly gave charity to help those in need. Batman believed he could right the wrongs and fix the world.

And so I internalized these rules. I determined that they were a pretty good set of rules to live by even if you aren’t The Batman. Throughout my life I read extensively on theology. I was always searching for that answer, always wanting to know, which one of those “Houses of God” did God go to? I have studied everything from Atheism to Zen and back. But in 1997 I picked up a little paperback book called WHERE WE STAND: JEWISH CONSCIOUSNESS ON CAMPUS. I began to read and I was shocked! There in this book on Judaism were the rules of Batman!

Then it made sense to me. Bob Kane and William Finger built their hero from the best of human qualities that they knew. And they were Jewish. Suddenly, Judaism was to me, the example of the best a human being could strive to achieve. Those five building blocks that Mr. Kane and Mr. Finger gave me when I was seven were filled with ancient wisdom, distilled through tough experience. My heart and soul felt at home.

The five rules are a bit more refined now but still reflect the same sense of righteousness.
Rule #1: Do not stand idly by while your brother’s blood is shed.
Rule#2: Justice, Justice you shall pursue.
Rule #3: Go and study!
Rule#4: That which is hateful to you, do not do unto your neighbor.
Rule#5: Tikkun Olam… Repair the World

While all types of Judaism have their plusses and minuses, I find Humanistic Judaism to best reflect my belief system. I believe that just as in Gotham City, Evil in our world is created and perpetrated by humans. It can be solved and corrected only through human action. My studies as a scientist (I am a Zoologist and a Family Physician.) lead me to appreciate the complexity of life and our world but also shows me that there are natural laws and explanations for the existence of everything. I do not use “God of the Gaps” to explain missing pieces of knowledge. I believe that while we may not know the answers to something now, eventually we will through science. Judaism has given me a strong foundation of how to interact with others in a fair and ethical way. Judaism has given me not only the desire to better my world but the tools and means to achieve that.

I realize that there are more than five rules to a good life! But it was a wonderful start for a little girl lost and searching for a path to give meaning to her life.

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Comments

4 Responses to “Lisa’s Adoption of Judaism”

  1. Jeff K. Says:
    January 24th, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    I too was drawn to reading Batman as a youngster and continued to read his adventures through the 80′s. The things that he stood for never dawned on me that they could be thought of as Jewish concepts. But now that I have read Lisa’s thoughts, it certainly makes sense that Bob and Bill would make him undeniably Jewish. The character will endure forever.

  2. Bob Ben-Zion VanSickel Says:
    February 24th, 2012 at 11:23 am

    Mazel Tov, Lisa. Rabbi Laura, you continue to do SUCH good work. Anyone in this situation is welcome to contact me at: robert.vansickel@indstate.edu.

    Thank you, Rabbi Laura.

  3. harriet e Says:
    March 29th, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    Lisa, I really enjoyed your life story about finding a connection to humanistic Judaism. Altho my story was a bit different, being born and raised as a Reform Jew, I, too, found that my outlook on life fit with that of Rabbi Barr and Rabbi Baum.

  4. Lisa D. Vaughn, D.O. Says:
    April 1st, 2012 at 11:27 am

    Thanks Harriet, Bob and Jeff K. I am honored that you read and shared my story.

    Lisa

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