Shalom Rabbi Ginsburg,



I just wanted to write to you to let you know about our progress. We are learning so much that we didn’t know and took for granted, and have greatly enjoyed the videos. I also have a colleague of mine, a PhD student who is taking the courses with us and is greatly moved by them. We are making the videos a big part of our life, and since I have seen them all, I am mix matching some of them to better utilize our study habits for the terms, i.e.,  we combined lesson 4 with 12. One of the games that we are doing to make it more fun is trying to guess as to where the videos are going to be taken before we watch them. It is actually quite fun for us to guess, kitchen, outside, synagogue office, and so forth.



One of the biggest truths that have come out of this is quite clear, “God didn’t get it wrong the first time.” We love this and never quite thought of this before. This was and had been an issue with me personally as a fmr Christian who studied the Christian bible. It seems that Christians like picking and choosing what they want to do and instead of taking the inspired word of God from the Torah, they pick a letter from an apostle to over ride God’s commandments and it is deeply hearting that both Christians and Jews forget what I consider a very important commandment, to remember and keep the Sabbath (Shabbat). With our deeper learning and guidance from you and God, I just do not understand why anyone who claims to have a relationship w/ God in any form would forget this. This is a time to remember, look back, and thank God for his creative power for what not only what he did during creation, but what he does and leads/guides us in our lives today. I’m afraid that possibly too many people are forgetting what Shabbat really is about, it’s the time that, as a family, we can thank and admire God the creator for all He has done to lead us to this day, and to thank Him for giving us the opportunity to know Him better in study and to know Him better to help us make better decisions in our lives.



We also respect the idea that we are responsible for the actions that we take in our everyday lives and no little devil and angel is sitting on our shoulders, advising constantly as to the decisions that we make and/or do. I personally have always rejected and had distain towards the idea that “the devil made me do it” and other metaphors as that to try and put blame on situation on someone other than those responsible. We have always led our lives with the belief we are responsible for our actions and decisions, but it’s a nice refreshment to hear this from you, as we have grown to really respect, admire, and love you as our Rabbi, even though we have never personally met as of yet.



Again, thank you for this opportunity. As mentioned before, we are learning Hebrew on a conversational side, and are going to begin our lessons on learning to read Hebrew by the end of October. I wanted your opinion on this. We have a free program that we are going to learn from, but would you advise trying to use not only this, but a split English-Hebrew Tanakh to help learn to read? It was just an idea, as we already have this in our library?

There are also linear Bibles and prayer books and transliterated ones that are really helpful this way

I made mention with you on the phone that I had some personal questions pertaining to marriage and so forth. Our main question is, would it be “right” to have a Jewish marriage ceremony,

 

yes, once you are both jewish you should have a ketubah. we do it all the time.

since we were married under Christian ministers? I’m not saying that what we had would be null and void, but what we are looking for is that maybe for our 6th year anniversary, we were considering renewing our vouls in a Jewish fashion. Once we are truly Jewish, not just the spark, or essence within our souls feeling such, we want to implement all that we do in our lives as Jewish.



Secondly, what is the conservative idea on kippah’s, with emphasis on children wearing them, size, material and so forth? I have “normally” worn a kippah between 5.75-6” made of suede with little or no design. My son, he doesn’t wear one now, save during holiday’s and Shabbat.

 

Size does not matter, nor does material. Ultra orthodox prefer all black but otherwise does not mater. wear it at least when you study, or pray, eat etc. if it is only comfortable for you in the house, that is fine too

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Again, this is just to keep you up to date on our progress because as you are our teacher and the one who is guiding us in the beginning of our life long quest for knowledge and true Jewish living, I feel that I haven’t been up to par on keeping you up to date on everything, and I apologize. We are truly excited and the more we are learning, the closer we are feeling to know His will for us, and His will for what He wants from His people. It is truly a blessing and honor to learn more of Him and the different ways that we, as simple people, and as a family can fulfill His commandments and give Him thanks and praise for all He has done.



We want to be a light to those around us, and I hope that our love and zeal for Him will shine to others, and maybe inspire some who may of let “the light dim a little” rekindle their true love, their hearts, and their admiration to the One True God shine once again.



We will be purchasing the set of books in the beginning of November and will pay for the classes no later than January. We have our budget set and are living very strict on that budget. We will have our savings up for our trip to Chicago by March,

that is great, we can do the marriage renwal here at services with yuor hebrew naming if you stay over a weekend. mikveh simply depends on your wife's cycle which she can discuss with the mikveh lady when you are ready.

 

however, we want to make sure that we are truly ready for the court, (don't fret that part of it-it s not tough questioning. They rely on me to insure you are prepared.

 

as our commitment is not lacking, but we do have a lot to learn still. A lot of our focus is going to be implementing Hebrew songs and prayers to everything instead of using an English translation for us as the Hebrew language is quite different, but we are enjoying it and it is cute to hear our son speaking with us as he is picking it up too (he says bokear tov as broken toes as you made mention in one of your videos).



Thank you, and we are looking forward to learning even more with your help. We are trying earnestly to Live, Love, and Learn Jewishly.



Best regards,

 

God bless you