Do you really have to get naked to convert?
There's a mikvah, but maybe you can go in your skivvies, I don't remember.
Zoe: What's that, sir? Mal: Freedom, is what. Zoe: No, I meant what's that? Mal: Oh. Yeah. Just step around it. I think something must've been living in here.
'Out Of Gas'
Natter 53: We could just avoid making tortured puns
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Allyson - Jul 25, 2007 7:47:43 pm PDT #244 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
Glamcookie - Jul 25, 2007 7:49:01 pm PDT #245 of 10001
I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say I am like no one in the whole world. - Anne Lister
I'm fascinated. Tell me more!!
Trudy Booth - Jul 25, 2007 7:54:12 pm PDT #246 of 10001
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart
I think mikvahs are naked things.
Well, after women's periods they are.
Bobbi - Jul 25, 2007 7:55:03 pm PDT #247 of 10001
Dog is my co-pilot.
Conversion requirements vary by denomination. The mikveh is required for Orthodox and Conservative conversions. It may be optional for Reform and/or Reconstructionist conversions. And yes, if you go in the mikveh, it's a clothing-free environment. But it's private.
Allyson - Jul 25, 2007 7:56:19 pm PDT #248 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
It's a ritual bath. As Trudy says, it's used after women's periods, but they're also used as a ritual cleansing. If someone is going to convert, they need to have a mikvah, a bar/bat mitzvah, and I forget what else.
ETA: I was so young when my mother converted (and took us with her), I only vaguely remember the mikvah, and the naming ceremony.
Glamcookie - Jul 25, 2007 7:57:48 pm PDT #249 of 10001
I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say I am like no one in the whole world. - Anne Lister
So no drop of blood from the genital region is required by men?
Allyson - Jul 25, 2007 7:58:46 pm PDT #250 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
I think that's one of those weird things that I don't think really happens, like fucking through a hole in a sheet.
Bobbi - Jul 25, 2007 7:59:52 pm PDT #251 of 10001
Dog is my co-pilot.
Again, it depends upon denomination. Yes, the symbolic drop of blood (if a man is already circumcised) is required for Orthodox and possibly Conservative conversions. Probably not for Reform or Reconstructionist.
Glamcookie - Jul 25, 2007 8:00:09 pm PDT #252 of 10001
I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say I am like no one in the whole world. - Anne Lister
That's what I thought. I called bullshit but was curious.
ETA:This was to pd. Before I saw bobbi's post. So interesting.
Hil R. - Jul 25, 2007 8:23:08 pm PDT #253 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Yep. Drop of blood is required. Mikveh is required. And mikveh is naked, and for conversion, there's generally someone there to witness it. (Actually, even for none-conversion uses, there's a mikveh attendent who makes sure that you get totally underwater and checks to make sure you're clean enough to go in -- there's not supposed to be any barrier between your skin and the water, so you take a shower first, and remove contacts and nail polish and jewelry and everything, and clean out under your fingernails, and all kinds of little things like getting rid of loose scabs.)
Also, there's no bar/bat mitzvah required for conversion. The bar/bat mitzvah ceremony and party as we know it now is a fairly recent innovation -- as soon as a boy turns 13 or a girl turns 12, he or she is considered a bar/bat mitzvah (son/daughter of the commandments). The ceremony is to commemorate this, not to actually cause it. Any adult convert is already considered to have bar/bat mitzvah status simply by being an adult Jew. Lots of synagogues will have a special bar/bat mitzvah-type service for converts, but it's not required.