Hi everyone (This post begins with an answer to Colin then becomes JC :))
Some basic steps are - Learning judaism with a rabbi. The Religious Court, or Beth Din. (btw - Din means Justice/law in hebrew, Beth means house in hebrew, and many places here are named Beth-something. Beth-lehem is house of bread. Lehem=bread). The Bet Din officially oversees the formal conversion. (One part of the appearance will be to determine the Jewish knowledge of the conversion candidate). Circumcision (The Reform and Reconstructionist movements generally do not require a circumcision as part of the conversion process). Immersion (Orthodox and Conservative rabbis require both male and female conversion candidates to immerse themselves in a ritual bath called a mikveh. This ceremony is called tevillah. The mikveh can be any body of natural water. (The sea, a river, or the in doors one's where the Mikveh is always a pool with rain-water, meaning, pipes gather the raindrops straight into the pool, and nothing but rain-water) Choosing a name - Hebrew name is chosen. The public ceremony (This ceremony usually involves the convert standing in front of the congregation and giving a speech, most typically about the reasons for converting or the lessons learned through the conversion experience) I must say, Colin, that none of the above is my cup of tea. One of my best friends, a sweet young man who played the guitar like a devil and was a great Joniman too, became religios 10 years ago and i wish you all never to have to witness such a sad transformation like that with the people you love. >From what i understand, Joni is a very non-religios woman. This is where this post is >becoming JC and i wanted to talk about it with the group for sometime now so maybe >this is the right time. I hear songs like 'Job's sad song' and i'm confused. The one Joni is talking to in that song is God. He's the one her bitter confession is directed to. But how can you talk, blame and criticize something you don't even believe exists? "You make everything i dread and everything i fear come true" - how come? You think he's nothing, an invention - then why even bother? It's confusing. Then Jesus in some of Joni's songs. "Some turn to Jesus some turn to heroin" - true and i totaly agree with this tragical point of view she's talking about. "Jesus was a beggar he was rich in grace" - yes, and Pinokio was made of wood and became human. "We could talk about Jesus and Hitler..." - that speaks for itself. God - "Mythical god" vs "A child of God". But the general spirit is more like "God goes up the chimney" and Joni the Jezebel "Oh come let us adore - ME!". But "Job's sad song" and others are confusing. Magdalene, as i see it, is a human story for Joni, not a religios one -i can understand that, though i don't understand her need to go to those books and stories in order to find a metaphor. And every now and then another religios symbol appears in her songs and paintings making it more confusing to understand what Joni thinks of religion , all religions, these days. I still think that while there are so many forces in this world these days that want to own our freedom and ruin and fight the earth to death - religion is one of the worst. Everything said here wasn't said in anger at all. I'm only trying to understand where Joni stands with this issue and to learn from what you think and feel. Have a peaceful weekend everyone, Nuriel (Haifa, Israel) Colin wrote: "How do they convert then where you are, which I assume is Israel?" _____________________________________________________________ Free email, web pages, news, entertainment, weather and MORE! Check out -------------------------------> http://wowmail.com
