Women of the Wall

"Women of the Wall, or in its more familiar abbreviation, WOW, is a group of mostly religiously observant women who believe that women should be allowed to pray as a group at the Kotel, read from a Torah scroll and wear tallit. Currently, Israeli law does not permit women to perform these acts at the Kotel, and those who do so anyway are subject to a fine and up to six months in jail. Once a month on Rosh Hodesh, WOW members come together to form a minyan and pray at the Kotel. They complete the shacharit service and Hallel in front of the Wall and then move to a nearby archaeological area in order to read Torah and conclude the service."

- Sarah Szymkowicz, Jewish Virtual Library

Changing 'faiths'

As a Jewish woman who does not adhere to the religious beliefs that traditionally have defined "Jews" I wonder about how others who were not Jewish and have joined the religion embrace the term "Jewish". Do such individuals encounter the same (or similar) difficulties with the term not being of Jewish descent but having chosen to adopt the faith?

This need not be answered within the frame of Judaism, I just tend toward that reference point to frame questions... Would, for example, a practicioner of Hinduism feel excluded from the native Hindu population (meaning those born in regions where Hinduism is the dominate religious presence)?

Transcendence

Rather than excluding the possibility of God (although no one should present ideas that cannot be called into question here) I thought it might be interesting to try and understand what forms the "Divine" and/or the "Transcendent" might take.

how to begin?

I have been thinking about what the first post should be. I did not want to do an explanation of what I hope to do with this blog because I have no concrete intention. I do, however, hope this will be an honest inquiry into Jewish thought and its relevance to *non-religious* Jews or non-Jews. I emphasize "non-religious" it is a term I hope to understand more about before I am comfortable with its use. I ought to have many of the terms present offset by asterisks for lack of understanding, i.e. *Jews* *secular* *society* *dogma* *deity* *intention* *thought* and so on. Perhaps it is easier to apply the notion of negative philosophy to defining (by not defining) this project. Saying what it isn't because I can't possibly know at this point what it is. That in mind, this project/blog is not a place for dogmatic, unquestioned ideology.