pigeons-conversion-sideblog - Tumblr blog

[pigeons-conversion-sideblog]

FUCK YEAH Oh I'm excited now, thank you all for this, I was feeling really morose about pride this year ;;

One thing I am looking forward to is celebrating pride with all of you guys. I love queer jews and queer judaism 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵

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OOH I SING TOO

I'm a lyric coloratura first soprano with a modest belt (B-ish, A is more reliable) and a pretty wide range (3 octaves, which is big but not extraordinary—basically I'm just flexible and I can sing down to a high tenor range as well). I can also harmonize!

One thing I am looking forward to is celebrating pride with all of you guys. I love queer jews and queer judaism 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵

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Well it’s time for the most important post, and I hope y’all support me.

Might be surprising for everyone here - but I’m not Jewish. My great grandfather was an American Jew, but he married an Armenian woman, thus I’m just a 4th generation. I was reblogging Jewish things in a neutral way, as an ally.

But today is a day when I finally decided that yes, I’m going to convert to Judaism.

I’m learning, and when I will feel like I’m ready, I will go to the local Reform Judaism community for an actual learning and conversion.

So, please! If your blog is about (Reform) Judaism, or you’re converting/thinking about conversion, feel free to comment/reblog so I can follow you, or share your favorite blogs with me!

I hope we will be friends. ✡️

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if israel found a cure for cancer tomorrow they would call it curewashing

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Update:

this came into my inbox the day after I lost someone I considered a sister to pal-anon.

I've always thought the two name thing was cool, and that's also a family tradition (We have a lot of people named, forex, Lily, so we have, forex, Lily-Grace or Lily-Jane or Lily-Margaret or something like that and no none of those are real examples).

So anyway. I'm now leaning towards Emunah Vered.

Split up the first two for all the organic Rachels and Davids of the world.

Please feel free to elaborate on how you made your decision!

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golem that protects a daycare. it is made of playdough.

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Shabbat Shalom, dear friends! May this sacred day bring peace, rest, and joy to you and your loved ones. Let’s embrace the tranquility and blessings of Shabbat together. ✡️🌟

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this post is for all the jews that have lost friends in the months since 10/7, that have had friends become antisemitic/go mask off with their antisemitism

i see you. i see your pain and grief, and I'm sorry. you deserve better from the people you love.

-sincerely, a very angry goyische ally

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I'm taking Róisín with me, which isn't an English name but does transliterate into Vered/ורד (?). It's a family name, and a big part of my personal journey is honoring my past while embracing my future. (It also shares sounds with another family name from the other side, which I just realized and I love XD)

I picked it because I got goosebumps when I looked it up, and my Goosebumps Sense is usually either pretty accurate or good at pointing me in the right direction. 🌹

Split up the first two for all the organic Rachels and Davids of the world.

Please feel free to elaborate on how you made your decision!

[pigeons-conversion-sideblog]

Vayikra 19:34.

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There's one shop in town that's a farm supply store. It's where I bought my scythe and other farming tools. They sell substitute milk for animals, especially this time of year.

My wife and I went there today for more substitute milk for the rescue pups. (We are calling them, collectively, "the snacks" because they are very small and we have given them food names. Also because Pitchfork Guy referred to them as "patatas fritas"/French fries when he saw them.)

Additionally, we got tomato and eggplant sprouts. The eggplants are for us. The tomatoes are also for us, but possibly will feed the hummingbird moth caterpillars instead. We aren't picky.

Anyhow, the shopkeep was extremely invested in learning more about the snacks. It turns out that she had seen them on the road, assumed they were dead, and drove on. It wounded her to find out that they were alive and she'd driven past. It brightened her day to learn that all of them were still alive in our care.

We had to reassure her several times that, yes, all of them lived.

She was blown away. Delighted.

We asked how much she wanted for the milk and the plants.

"Do aiyuro." Two euros.

"For all of that?" I said in English.

She said something to my wife, who smiled and said: "... she's giving us the milk powder for free."

I was like, no, she runs a business and should be paid, that's a whole dang kilo of milk powder and it must be worth something. But once an Andalusian has decided to give you something for free, not even Hashem can get them to take the money.

Once I saw a local shopkeep deliver food to an elderly lady around about Christmastime. The elderly lady asked how much for the delivery. The shopkeep went "No, no, es la Navidad," and the elderly lady insisted on getting her wallet to pay... and while her back was turned, the shopkeep (not much older than her) turned on her heels and fled the scene as though she were committing a crime.

So I give up and pay two euros for our seedlings.

The shopkeep gave to the puppies, anyhow, not to me. Just like I will give my tomato plants to the hummingbird moth caterpillars, should we get any.

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Don't mind me, just crying over Prince of Egypt at 1 AM

I've hit a wall with Hebrew study, I'm too fatigued and brainfoggy and I'm not retaining the letters at all, and I've been feeling kinda discouraged. But then I put on Through Heaven's Eyes to perk myself up, and I got chills.

"And though you'll never know all the steps, you must learn to join the dance!"

I think G-d understands that music is the language my spirit speaks and that's the language Hashem speaks to me through. Which is one of the things I love so much about Judaism: it's so deeply, deeply musical in just about every aspect, and that just Resonates with me.

You must learn to join the dance 💙🤍

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happy flattest flat fuck friday of the year to all who celebrate

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Pesach is, to me, the most difficult holiday to celebrate right now. Since Oct 7th we've had a few holidays, but Pesach is the one that pains me most so far.

Hanukkah made sense. We are fighting to keep our homeland, as the Maccabees did. We have Israel now, and we will still have Israel. The holiday celebrating our resistance against those who wished to destroy us in our home made sense.

Purim made sense. Yes, it was painful to celebrate the holiday of joy, but we have resisted a force that wishes to eliminate each and every one of us. Just as we did in Persia against Haman, we are defending ourselves because never again will we be put in the position of being at our oppressor's mercy.

Pesach does not make sense. How are we to celebrate being taken out of captivity when over a hundred of our brothers and sisters are still being held captive? How are we to cheer about our freedom when our own people are not free? How can we celebrate G-d's hand coming down to free us when members of our Jewish family have not been free for over half a year?

It is painful. It physically hurts my chest to think about all of this. I wish for G-d to carry our people again, this time from the tunnels under Gaza. From the violent antisemitism we have been seeing happening all around. May we yet again experience freedom from those who wish us harm.

I in no way am saying that we should not celebrate Pesach. If anything, it is more important now than ever to celebrate and pray for freedom. I am just sharing my own feelings on the matter.

As was said then, we say now: LET OUR PEOPLE GO!

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...I have a meeting with a Rabbi in May 😳

It almost doesn't feel real?? I'm having a Rough Time Of It (my mother has a progressive degenerative illness and my chronic illnesses aren't managed well right now either so everyone is stressed and no one is okay) and I just, I keep thinking B"H (did I do that right lol) I needed this so much. Sooooo so much.

The timing could not be more perfect. Remember what I said about having a hard time interpreting certain things as anything but a sign from G-d?

It's stuff like this. Me having a really bad downward spiral last night that led me to consider going to the ER (I'm okay and I'm on it)....and this morning, I have a scheduling email in my inbox with the date and time.

I've been struggling for a long time. I've been keeping my nose above water, but barely. I've been pleading "anyone who will listen, I'm drowning and I need a buoy" for years at this point because I'm just so stressed about everything all the time, from my health to my mom's health to the world's health.

And Someone answered my prayers. And everything I learn about Him makes me more sure that Hashem is who reached out to save me from the tide.

...that sounds so corny, but I don't even care. I've always been one of those cringey religious people. I'm just being me, His dorky little subway goth who has very strong feelings about everything and finally noticed He's been holding her all along.

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“I try to walk the road of Judaism. Embedded in that road there are many jewels. One is marked “Shabbat” and one “Civil Rights” and one “keeping Kosher” and one “Honor Your Parents” and one “Study of Torah” and one “You Shall be Holy.” There are at least 613 of them and they are of different shapes and sizes and weights. Some are light and easy for me to pick up, and I pick them up. Some are too deeply embossed for me, so far at least though I get a little stronger b trying to extricate the jewels as I walk the street. Some, perhaps, I shall never be able to pick up. I believe that God expects me to keep on walking Judaism Street and to carry away whatever I can of its commandments. I do not believe that God expects me to lift what I cannot, nor may I condemn my fellow Jew who may not be able to pick up even as much as I can.”

— Adapted from Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, Mishkahn haNefesh for Rosh Hashanah, 159

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i've had so many people ask me how i could possibly want to convert to judaism, especially after the 7/10 attack, but honestly this has been a better convincer for me than anything else. judaism has given me access to a community that not only requires and craves and inspires and encourages intellectual diversity, but it also calls for nuance that is vanishingly rare in goyische spaces. it's sad to me how rare this ability to be nuanced is in mainstream goyische spaces of course, but i also can't help but just take a moment to feel lucky and grateful for my jewish community