I returned to the Source
to be reborn
to rebirth myself—
I became,
always in the process of
becoming
who I was always meant to be
who I have always been:
A Jewish soul,
once lost, wandering from SinaiAccording to the Torah, God, in the presence of the Jewish people, gave Moses the Torah on Mount Sinai (Har Sinai).
seeking home.
Honoring tradition, TorahThe Five Books of Moses, and the foundation of all of Jewish life and lore. The Torah is considered the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and study of the Torah is a high mitzvah. The Torah itself a scroll that is hand lettered on parchment, elaborately dressed and decorated, and stored in a decorative ark. It is chanted aloud on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat, according to a yearly cycle. Sometimes "Torah" is used as a colloquial term for Jewish learning and narrative in general., halakhah, myself
in ritual is a blessing
to be granted with perhaps the greatest blessing:
“welcome home.”
The mikvehThe ritual bath. The waters of the mikveh symbolically purify – they are seen as waters of rebirth. A convert immerses in the mikveh as part of conversion. Many Orthodox married women go to the mikveh following their period and before resuming sexual relations. Couples go to the mikveh before being married. Many, including some men, immerse before Yom Kippur; some go every Friday before Shabbat. was grounding and transcendent,
a sanctuary wherein contradiction marries continuity, achievement, and acceptance.
I felt at once weightless
and at one, in substance, with the surrounding water
with the generations of Jews who came before me
with the generations of Jews who will arrive after me.
I became water, the water became me.
The transformation complete upon a definitive “kasher!”—
surreal and so corporeal.
I feel whole for having finally embraced
those living waters and
the Jewish people and
myself.
I returned
and turn
and turn
and turn
to the Source.
