Attending My First Torah Study
For this Shabbat I was invited to my very first Torah study at a local synagogue. I'm not exaggerating when I say that by the time I left quite giddy and elated. I want to start out with a little disclaimer that I will be making a lot of references to my Catholic upbringing in this journal entry. This is not to say that Judaism and Catholicism are even remotely similar. On top of that, for much of history Catholics (and other Christians in general) have played a strong hand in the oppression of Jews. I'm coming more from the perspective on reflecting on my childhood experiences in comparison to my experiences in Jewish community, as someone who personally had a largely negative (and at points, traumatic) experience in the Catholic church. After pulling into the synagogue lot and finding a parking spot, I sat in my car for a few moments. I found myself suddenly quite nervous. What if I accidentally did something disrespectful? Would I get weird looks for not knowing the words...