Whenever people learn that I’m a convert to Judaism, they inevitably decide that I must have been influenced by some charismatic Jewish role model. When I’m asked about the Jewish friends who must have obviously “influenced” me, I always think of Michael T. and of his mother. It must have been around grade five, maybe six, when I was attending the Prince of Wales Public School when I met Michael. So far as I...

Read more »

I don’t know about you, but I hate fasting. Every time I have to abstain from food and drink for any extended period of time, I always end up trying to understand why this act is relevant to me here and now! Here we are, how many millenniums since Esther fasted three days and three nights before throwing herself at the mercy of the ruler of Persia? Why was her act necessary? To plea...

Read more »