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

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

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

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

A mitzvah is what Jews do in response to the divine. A mitzvah is value-in-action—a deed filled with good. Mitzvot are the praxis of Judaism.

From synagogue pulpits of every denomination, the message is repeated so often that it has become a truism: “We are all Jews by choice.”

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

when all Jews have access to the entire marketplace of ideas and beliefs, an authentic sense of being Jewish—of Jewishness—requires living as a Jew, doing Jewish in some way.

A man went looking for Rabbi Hillel and said to him, “I want to become a Jew. But only on the condition that you teach me the Torah, all of it, while I stand on one foot.” Hillel looked at this smart-aleck and said, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. That is the entire Torah—all of it. The rest is commentary. Go and study.”

Choosing to be a Jew means that you become vulnerable to a form of bigotry to which you were previously immune; in the process, you may become even more sensitive to all forms of prejudice and discrimination, and more motivated to pursue justice—tzedek—for everyone.