Greetings and Salutations

Hello, and welcome to 613 Seeds, my blog of Torah learning, reflection, and practice. I will warn you now, I know next to nothing about Torah, which is part of why I'm doing this. I am a thirty-one year old convert to Judaism. I've been toying around with the idea of keeping a weekly journal of reflections on each week's Torah portion, along with any commentaries that I find interesting, and of course, my own insights as to how this applies best to my life. Ideally, I'll be posting here once a week, on Sundays. Realistically, odds are good that I won't actually manage to be that consistant...mostly because of how crazy my life is right now.

I'm a military wife, married to a twice-over Iraq veteran who struggles Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and bipolar disorder. I'm also the mother of a little boy in need of an organ transplant and a teenager in desperate need of....well, teenagers pretty much demand the moon on a daily basis, don't they? I work in the fund development department of a large charity and am also in the middle of starting my own nonprofit. On top of ALL of this, I'm a full time student twice over; pursuing my Masters of Divinity while also working to complete my Bachelors in Psychology at the same time. Basically, my life consists of caring for a physically fragile child, an emotionally fragile spouse, a demanding teenager, school and of course, work.

In the middle of all of this chaos is Shabbat...my refuge and my anchor. Our family never misses a Friday night, unless my son is in the hospital. We attend a Reform congregation with an incredibly supportive, wise and loving staff. We are actively engaged in living a Jewish life and take great joy and pride in our spiritual community. In fact, most weeks we are at our synagogue more evenings that we are at home! This doesn't mean that we're religious fanatics though...I'm a Feminist theologian and tend to skew liberal/progressive on pretty much every subject both social and spiritual and am fascinated by the Jewish Renewal movement and by modern mystical writers such as Gershon Winkler and Rabbi Jill Hammer.

You might be wondering about the name: 613 Seeds. The pomegranate has been my "thing" since I was a fifteen. If people still had coats of arms, my primary symbol would be the pomegranate. So, it seemed to be a fortunate sign that when I first started learning about Judaism, I discovered that the pomegranate has long been a symbol of the Torah. Tradition teaches that the Pom contains 613 seeds...one for each of the 613 mitzvot. So, for both personal and religious reasons, I've decided to title this journal 613 Seeds. It seems fitting, both personally and spiritually.

I don't expect anyone to be reading this. I'm not inviting many readers, nor am I publicizing this blog outside of my own small circle. This is mostly a place for me to gather my thoughts and reflect on each weeks teaching. If you happen to stumble upon it and want to leave your own insights or interpretations, you are welcome to do so. Just look for the "Seeds of Wisdom" icon near each of my postings.

Thanks for stopping by. Shalom.