Have we talked TorahGirl?

[Slt]

Lina has a best buddy that ran a website with her, TorahGirl.

torahgirl.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/wedding-details/

(LINK BROKEN: above link are the details of her wedding with Jewish "tradition" thrown in where they saw fit.

This girl is NUTS. Her family decided to become Jewish after being Evangelical (of the fundie nature) Christian. They run a "Torah centered fellowship" in the city where I live.

bellatorah.com/

Anyway, this girl lives literally around the corner from me (because it's a great idea to post the street you live on the internetz). And some of the fundie crowd that my IL's run in with are mentioned on her blog. It is so weird to me, even with all of the fundie madness that I read on here, that people can be this crazy.

She seems to misunderstand a lot of the history behind the traditions/rituals that she "must" perform, and just so lost.

There is a lot to say about fundie religion, but it would be pretty tough to go from a religion that tells you that your sins are forgiven because of Jesus, then renounce said "savior" and have to follow laws/rules.

She is pretty interesting...

[saraelise]

I'm going through her journal and apparently they celebrated Simchat Torah by reading aloud the entire Torah. It took them just over an hour???

I agree that she seems super confused.

[ceg045]

I'm the first to admit that my gaydar is pretty much defunct, and looking at pictures alone is hardly an accurate indicator of someone's sexuality, but her husband is pinging.

[terranova]

JEWELRY

None… “the Ashkenazi custom is that the chatan {bridegroom} and kallah {bride} wear no jewelry under the chuppah {marriage canopy}. Their mutual commitment is based on who they are as people, not on any material possessions.†-Guide to the Jewish Wedding on Aish.com[/quote]

Yet she lists where they bought their clothes, rings and even shoes??

[yewchapel]

I wonder how she feels about vegan atheist Lina?

[GeoBQn]

Lina appears to still be faux Jew, if her FB page is current.

[saraelise]

Lina appears to still be faux Jew, if her FB page is current.

Can you link her page, please? I can never find it.

[Savoring Samsara]

I'm going through her journal and apparently they celebrated Simchat Torah by reading aloud the entire Torah. It took them just over an hour???

I agree that she seems super confused.

Here's a post from another attendee at their Simchat Torah celebration. Apparently reading the whole Torah was accomplished by having everyone there read a portion of it simultaneously. (so, yyyyeah, Simchat Torah: UR DOIN IT RONG.) I suppose there's no accounting for taste in matters of what makes for a spiritually fulfilling experience, but I, for one, think I would have a splitting migraine like two minutes into that thing.

worldoftoliver.com/2012/10/09/bella-torah/

[saraelise]

Here's a post from another attendee at their Simchat Torah celebration. Apparently reading the whole Torah was accomplished by having everyone there read a portion of it simultaneously. (so, yyyyeah, Simchat Torah: UR DOIN IT RONG.) I suppose there's no accounting for taste in matters of what makes for a spiritually fulfilling experience, but I, for one, think I would have a splitting migraine like two minutes into that thing.

worldoftoliver.com/2012/10/09/bella-torah/

That sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever. I wonder if they're no-dancing fundies and that's why they didn't do that?

[yewchapel]

No-dancing fundies trying to be Jewish would be hilarious if it wasn't so offensive.

[GeoBQn]

Can you link her page, please? I can never find it.

facebook.com/paulinadodd

[Slt]

No-dancing fundies trying to be Jewish would be hilarious if it wasn't so offensive.

I'm pretty sure they are of the no-dancing fundie type considering the (fundie) company that they keep (who I know of personally).

My poor BIL just had an interaction with one of the fundies she mentions on her blog, where he "fell in love" with the girl during their homeschool classes as a high schooler. Now that they are both college-aged (20) he started pursuing her. Her dad is of the uber-crazy Wycliffe bible translators and put him through about a year of hell. After said girl refused to "disobey" her parents and they had to cut ties. Thank goodness BIL was able to see through the crazy and get the hell out of dodge. He was convinced they would marry and I was :shock: terrified.

[Gwen]

I think she still is a Christian, but a fake-Jew Christian.

[Slt]

I think she still is a Christian, but a fake-Jew Christian.

I Thought so at first, too but after reading extensively I realized:

She never mentions Jesus- not common for fundies, even fake jew ones. She talks quite a bit about the Torah but not at all about the bible. She also mentions, at some point, about their "conversion" and no longer being/living in grace, but following "the law."

[Gwen]

Yeah, but the Bella Torah things is messianic. They call Hanukkah "the Festival of Lights". She's studying "Passion and Purity" in her bible study group.

"discussed conspiracy theories {9/11?} with Pete… saw a few eye-opening YouTube videos"

"visited Christ Covenant Church for a birthday lunch with Greg’s coworkers"

"continued reading through The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot with Greg"

If you go back through the blog you see the Jewish and Christian stuff existing simultaneously.

[Bazile]

I read through some of her stuff, and since she shares way too much I was able to google her synagogue, and it's a Messianic congregation that meets in someone's home. bellatorah dot com I'm not super familiar with Messianic Judaism other than my ethnically Jewish raised in a Baptist orphange grandfather who occasionally attends services at the Messianic synagogue near his house's claim that they know their Bible better than anyone he knows, but the lack of any mention of Jesus/Yeshua seems strange.

[Gwen]

Messianic Judaism is basically Christians infusing Jesus in Judaism. Some groups seek to proselytize Jews specifically.

Bella Torah mentions Jesus right at the top of the page. Almost every site it links to is also Messianic.

[Soldier of the One]

Oh, Messianic Jews... they really bring out the snark in me.

Especially when they dress up their antics in Hebrew to make it sound more 'authentic'. Yet they lead services at Bella Torah (why the Italian name?) predominately in English... from an Artscroll Siddur.

[Gwen]

Maybe someone was named Bella?

[darkplumaged]

I feel such secondhand embarrassment for these poser "Jews," in a way that I did not for Lina. Lina is very snarkable, but she's young and trying to find her way. But TorahGirl's whole family seems wrapped up in this congregation, and there is something so lame about a bunch of middle-aged, very... not Jewish people trying to be Jewish while worshiping Jesus.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

OH FFS! Simchas Torah is supposed to be FUN. I'm non-observant and haven't been to shul in years, but I would still consider attending a Simchas Torah service. You cannot take the dancing and singing and shaking thing away from Judaism - it is NOT compatible with a superimposition of dire fundie Protestantism. But I guess the thought of dancing around with a holy book in your arms would give them all fainting spells.

[GeoBQn]

JEWELRY

None… “the Ashkenazi custom is that the chatan {bridegroom} and kallah {bride} wear no jewelry under the chuppah {marriage canopy}. Their mutual commitment is based on who they are as people, not on any material possessions.†-Guide to the Jewish Wedding on Aish.com

I am Ashkenazi and I have never heard of this custom. Aish.com is an Orthodox site, so my guess is that this is where that came from. My (Reconstructionist female) rabbi had no problem with me wearing jewelry. Aish.com also says that a bride can't give a groom a ring under the chuppah, which is strictly an Orthodox prohibition and plenty of Jews don't follow that anymore.

That's one of the many many many things that bug me about faux Jews. They don't acknowledge that Judaism has changed since the days of the Temple, or that there are Jewish communities around the world with their own customs, or that there are different denominations with their own philosophies toward observance. They pick from the modern Orthodox American version (that is completely anachronistic if they claim to be doing it to "understand Jesus") and proclaim they are doing Judaism better than everybody else.

[darkplumaged]

I am Ashkenazi and I have never heard of this custom. Aish.com is an Orthodox site, so my guess is that this is where that came from. My (Reconstructionist female) rabbi had no problem with me wearing jewelry. Aish.com also says that a bride can't give a groom a ring under the chuppah, which is strictly an Orthodox prohibition and plenty of Jews don't follow that anymore.

That's one of the many many many things that bug me about faux Jews. They don't acknowledge that Judaism has changed since the days of the Temple, or that there are Jewish communities around the world with their own customs, or that there are different denominations with their own philosophies toward observance. They pick from the modern Orthodox American version (that is completely anachronistic if they claim to be doing it to "understand Jesus") and proclaim they are doing Judaism better than everybody else.

Observant Orthodox Jews dress modestly, have tons of laws surrounding sexuality, may be socially conservative, and often have larger families, so of course Christian fake Jews want to emulate them rather than more liberal streams of Judaism.

I wore a necklace, earrings, and my engagement ring for my wedding. I have never heard of the no-jewelry custom, either.

[Gwen]

Well, they're looking at the Aish website rather selectively. Aish has articles about the deceit of Christian missionaries, an entire article about why Jews don't believe in Jesus, and a bunch of articles about converts.

Just as a side though, sometimes Aish comes across as so normal and has some feel good essays, and then other times the stuff on there is batcrap crazy. An article on there said Hitler was sent by God to punish the Jews.

[Soldier of the One]

I've heard of the custom but it's rare. I certainly didn't keep it at my chuppah (wedding).

Faux Jews have no sense of historical perspective. If they are blindly copying Aish.com-type Orthodoxy, then that flies in the face of the teachings of Jesus. Jesus was a Pharisaic teacher, proto-rabbinic, pre-Mishnah at best. Extrapolating 'Messianic Judaism' from post-Mishnaic, Talmudic, Halachic Judaism from later eras makes no sense. At least Karaites are more internally consistent and not obnoxious/self-righteous about it either. That I can respect.

If 'not very Jewish' people want to be Jewish, the answer is simple: convert. But stay away from Jesus. The two are mutually exclusive.