{"id":10272,"date":"2006-10-19T03:02:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-19T03:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/life\/other\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/"},"modified":"2015-10-22T07:53:18","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T12:53:18","slug":"i_have_a_kosher_home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/","title":{"rendered":"I Have a Kosher Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image\"<\/div>\n

Today I kashered my kitchen. Well, actually \u2013 a lovely Tunisian friend named Riadh and his catering team did the work. I just designated things milk, meat and parve and called the Rabbi to ask if I had to get rid of all my knives and whether you had to polish the silver before kashering it (you don\u2019t.) Strange things happened. The idea of giving up my mother\u2019s bread knife had me close to tears. The idea of never using my blue mugs (now dairy) when I served dinner on our white china (meat) made me angry. Was I sure \u2013 I asked myself \u2013 that this was the right decision \u2013 a commitment that, once made, I would honor as a matter of principle as well as faith.<\/p>\n

Two years ago my husband Rick and I were living a modern, unaffiliated life in Washington\u2019s trendy Georgetown neighborhood. Our synagogue attendance consisted mainly of high holidays \u201cdrive bys\u201d (as my husband called them), as guests of friends, to Washington\u2019s largest Reform synagogue. Rick\u2019s chronic illness and open-heart surgery had had a huge impact on our lives; that, combined with our concerns about the state of the rest of the world had left us emotionally and physically exhausted \u2013 and we didn’t even know it.<\/p>\n

Rosh Hashanah caught us by surprise \u2013 we had no tickets and decided, rather than bother our friends, to find tickets for ourselves. We began calling \u2013 looking for tickets at a synagogue that might be comfortable. After one told Rick they could \u201coffer you two in the balcony for $2,200\u201d we decided this wasn’t our year to be religious \u2013 we’d just sit it out.<\/p>\n

The very next day \u2013 one day before the holiday — a story appeared in the Washington Post about a young Orthodox rabbi working to rescue a dying congregation in DC’s upper northwest. He’d added \u201cThe National Synagogue\u201d to the name of the shul and hoped to make the name a reality. \u201cWhat chutzpah\u201d my husband said. \u201cI have to meet this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he called the synagogue, the man who answered the phone invited us to come to Rosh Hashanah as his guests. The only requirement \u2013 that we arrive by 8:30 and introduce ourselves. \u201cWho is this?\u201d my husband asked. \u201cOh\u201d came the answer, \u201cI\u2019m the rabbi.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can probably guess what happened next. We went \u2013 the rabbi (his name is Shmuel Herzfeld) took us home for lunch \u2013 where a gentle visitor explained to me that I couldn\u2019t ask people where they were from while washing because they couldn’t respond \u2013 my first lesson — then to visit elderly homebound congregants and blow the Shofar for them, then back to services and home again for dinner with him, his doctor wife and three (now four) amazing children, and various sisters, cousins and friends. I guess there was a time in the 70s when they called it love bombing \u2013 engaging people with such warmth and acceptance that resistance was, as the Borg used to say, futile. But what happened with us, with Shmuel and with the emerging community we’re now proud to help build \u2013 wasn’t love-bombing by a cult. It was an offering of warmth, acceptance and purpose that reached parts of us we\u2019d forgotten about.<\/p>\n

I remember driving home after services in the early weeks and saying to Rick, \u201cI know what\u2019s happening. If we get involved with these people we’ll be inhaled. We’ll lose the rest of our lives. I don’t care how nice they are it\u2019s all too weird for me.” I remember Rick\u2019s response: \u201cWe aren’t going to lose ourselves \u2013 we’re going to find ourselves\u201d \u2014two people we hadn’t had honest contact with for a long time.<\/p>\n

As time went by, I began to feel a deep appreciation for our Carlebach Kabbalat Shabbat. I understand that in many shuls women do not attend that service, and I find that astonishing. It is clearly the most accessible and inspiring service, one of great unity, love and joy, and a family event. The trouble was, and is, I cry. Every week. Usually during the first part of the service. During the first third of the service. When I complained once to a friend about my quest to find and feel God she said \u201cOK \u2013 so you think the music isn’t getting through? Who do you think is making you cry?\u201d She was right, of course. The music, just like the warmth of the Rabbi and the congregation, was a message. We were meant to be there and to learn there. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing. We decided to wait a year, and if we still felt the same way, to move close to the shul.<\/p>\n

Now we live in the neighborhood. We walk to shul. We pray. We study. We’re active in helping to build the community. There\u2019s a Women\u2019s Beit Midrash and a book club and lectures all the time. The learning is exciting not only because I didn\u2019t know any of it but because I hadn\u2019t known I didn\u2019t know. The spiritual life is moving and very rewarding \u2013 although like everyone I struggle for the connections we all seek. I love Shabbat, which I thought I\u2019d hate \u2013 and happily anticipate lighting the candles each Friday night.<\/p>\n

The reality of what Judaism really is \u2013 its emphasis on family and justice and concepts like Lashon Hara, the great rewards of participation in a faith that is a journey and not a destination \u2013 as well as the warmth that surrounds us, the fact of complete participation rather than service as an audience, the community of supportive and loving friends and the joy of their amazing children and our amazing, inspiring rabbi \u2013 all serve to help us make our way. And now they can come have Shabbat with us. We have a kosher house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I kashered my kitchen. Well, actually \u2013 a lovely Tunisian friend named Riadh and his catering team did the work. I just designated things milk, meat and parve and called the Rabbi to ask if I had to get rid of all my knives and whether you had to polish the silver before kashering<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":49187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nI Have a Kosher Home - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The reality of what Judaism really is - a faith that is a journey and not a destination & the warmth that surrounds us serve to help us make our way\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Have a Kosher Home - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The reality of what Judaism really is - a faith that is a journey and not a destination & the warmth that surrounds us serve to help us make our way\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-10-19T03:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-10-22T12:53:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Cutlery-Holders.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cynthia Samuels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cynthia Samuels\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/\",\"name\":\"I Have a Kosher Home - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Cutlery-Holders.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-10-19T03:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-22T12:53:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/6245743ac5237e2c2ac5dff39cb3cb2c\"},\"description\":\"The reality of what Judaism really is - a faith that is a journey and not a destination & the warmth that surrounds us serve to help us make our way\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Cutlery-Holders.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Cutlery-Holders.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"Cutlery Holder\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/6245743ac5237e2c2ac5dff39cb3cb2c\",\"name\":\"Cynthia Samuels\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/925111c193a935e2878b6bd7c2e26e112d3caae801ed86c192aa3be281d3373c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/925111c193a935e2878b6bd7c2e26e112d3caae801ed86c192aa3be281d3373c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cynthia Samuels\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/cynthia_samuelsou-org\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I Have a Kosher Home - OU Life","description":"The reality of what Judaism really is - a faith that is a journey and not a destination & the warmth that surrounds us serve to help us make our way","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I Have a Kosher Home - OU Life","og_description":"The reality of what Judaism really is - a faith that is a journey and not a destination & the warmth that surrounds us serve to help us make our way","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/","og_site_name":"OU Life","article_published_time":"2006-10-19T03:02:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-10-22T12:53:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Cutlery-Holders.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cynthia Samuels","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cynthia Samuels","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/","name":"I Have a Kosher Home - OU Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Cutlery-Holders.jpg","datePublished":"2006-10-19T03:02:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-10-22T12:53:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/6245743ac5237e2c2ac5dff39cb3cb2c"},"description":"The reality of what Judaism really is - a faith that is a journey and not a destination & the warmth that surrounds us serve to help us make our way","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/i_have_a_kosher_home\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Cutlery-Holders.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Cutlery-Holders.jpg","width":300,"height":400,"caption":"Cutlery Holder"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/","name":"OU Life","description":"Everyday Jewish Living","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/6245743ac5237e2c2ac5dff39cb3cb2c","name":"Cynthia Samuels","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/925111c193a935e2878b6bd7c2e26e112d3caae801ed86c192aa3be281d3373c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/925111c193a935e2878b6bd7c2e26e112d3caae801ed86c192aa3be281d3373c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cynthia Samuels"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/cynthia_samuelsou-org\/"}]}},"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41280,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10272\/revisions\/41280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}