My conversion is tomorrow. At 8:45 in the morning. After waiting and wanting to be Jewish in some part of my soul since I was 11 years old, standing confused in a hallway outside my sixth grade classroom, I am going to be Jewish. It’s been a long, winding path through different faiths, through being scared, through being challenged, but it’s here. And it’s surreal. But exciting. Marvelous. Exhilarating After all, how often in life do you get to come out with a new soul? It started to begin to feel real last week, as I took a trip to the mikvah I will be dipping in once my meeting with the beit din is over, and when I had a last meeting with my rabbi. It finally sunk in when I made a Facebook post about it this morning and before I knew what was happening, my eyes had filled with tears. Happy tears. Incredulous tears. I am going to be Jewish tomorrow. Jewish forever. It’s incredible, it’s humbling, and I will mean every syllable when I sing out the Shehecheyanu tomorrow after my third dip is declared to be kasher, kosher, legitimate, my Jewishness confirmed and sealed.
Baruch ata Adonai
Blessed are you, Lord our God,
Eloheinu melekh ha’olam
Ruler of the Universe
Shecheyanu, ve’qi’eh’manu
Who has granted us life, sustained us,
Va’hi’giy’anu lazmaan hazeh
And enabled us to reach this occasion.
Finding My Jewish Soul 