Just to address this specific point: I think the prase you’re using, “novice Jew,” really reveals what’s confusing you about the issue.
Okay, for the purposes of this explanation, I’m going to use the word “halachic,” which means “under Jewish law.” (I’m using it to mean “under Orthodox Jewish law,” because that’s my area of semi-expertise.) It’s just easier to use the term than use awkward explanatory phrases every time.
Halachically, there are Jews and there are non-Jews. You can be Hindu or agnostic or Taoist or whatever; you’re just not a Jew. That’s your halachic category. If you intend to convert to Judaism, you are a non-Jew until the moment you become a Jew, and all the rules governing non-Jews apply to you until you become a Jew, at which point all rules governing Jews apply to you.
There is no intermediate category in which you are a “pre-Jew.” If you’re a non-Jew, you can’t keep the Jewish Sabbath (again, please note I’m speaking from an Orthodox perspective, because I can’t speak to Conservative, Reform, or Reconstructionist practice). If you’re a Jew, you must keep the Jewish Sabbath, with all that entails. Because someone preparing to convert does not have a halachic status different from any other non-Jew, he must do something, like light a candle or write something down, to show that he is doing something forbidden on the Sabbath and is not keeping it, as yBeayf explained so well.
However, once you become a Jew, you’ve become an entirely new halachic entity. So it’s not that a single person is forbidden to do something and then all of a sudden is required to do that same thing. For all halachic intents and purposes, the person has become someone entirely new, with a set of entirely new responsibilities.
You’re allowed (if you get permission from the bishop of the diocese) to have a Nuptial Mass if only one partner is Catholic. It’s not usually done, though, because the non-Catholic partner and their (presumably) non-Catholic family wouldn’t be able to take communion.
Speaking from the Conservative perspective, I disagree. Someone studying for conversion can’t truly keep Shabbat, I agree, but I’ve never heard of a student being required to break it. I think I’ll run this question by the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards – the closest thing we have to a centralized authority.
As others have noted, it is inappropriate for a non-Jew to put on a tallit or tefillin, as these are obligations specific to Jews, or to go up for a Torah reading, as that is an act central to the Jewish faith. I remembered two acts that non-Jews are outright prohibited from doing, one of them currently inactive:
In the days of the Temple sacrificial cult in Jerusalem, non-Jews were not allowed to eat of the Paschal lamb. No Paschal lamb is sacrificed these days, therefore this prohibition does not apply.
Kosher wine may not be handled during its production by non-Jews – or even, for that matter, by Jews who are not highly observant. This presented a problem for a long time, as people who knew how to make wine didn’t get into the kosher wine industry – and people who knew how to make kosher wine never studied the wine industry. Only about a century ago did Baron Herzog (IIRC) obtain a ruling allowing him, a non-Jew, to own the winery as long as he didn’t handle the wine itself during production.
I’ll have to keep that in mind… I’m not Jewish, but my name (Daniel) is, so far as I know, a Hebrew name. So if I ever happen to be visiting a synagogue and am asked for my Hebrew name, I’ll know to mention that I’m not Jewish.
I wonder, though, whether the Shabbat being kept by the Conservative conversion student would be considered fully keeping Shabbat by an Orthodox authority. There’s such a wide range of observance within the Conservative movement; only the strictest Conservative Jews probably keep a full, strict Shabbat, with all the minutiae. If he doesn’t, then from an Orthodox standpoint, the not-yet-Jewish conversion student isn’t keeping Shabbat in a way that the Orthodox community would consider forbidden.
How strict are most Conservatives about Shabbat? Because flipping a light switch or tearing a piece of toilet paper would be enough to satisfy the requirement for a non-Jew to show he’s not keeping Shabbat.
But it’s not the Hebrew pronuciation, and it’s not in the proper format. The Hebrew pronunciation of Daniel is Dah-nee-ale, with all three syllables enunciated and the emphasis on either the second or third syllable, depending where you’re from. And the format is [first and middle name] ben [first and middle father’s name], all in Hebrew, ben meaning “son of.” So even if you were called up and asked what your name was, simply giving it as “Daniel” wouldn’t be enough to put you on the spot.
In an Orthodox or (possibly) non-egalitarian Conservative synagogue, it would be “Daniel ben (father’s Hebrew name)”. In an egalitarian Conservative or Reform synagogue, it would be “Daniel ben (father’s Hebrew name) v’ (mother’s Hebrew name)”. Many people with Hebrew names have two of them- essentially, a first and middle name.
(Note: I don’t really know what happens at non-egalitarian Conservative synagogues- all the ones I’ve been to have been egalitarian, which basically means that women can get called to the Torah, men and women sit together in the sanctuary, and women can wear yarmulkes and tallises if they want to. I don’t know of any Conservative synagogues in the Bay Area where those aren’t the case)
If you converted to Judaism, obviously your father and mother wouldn’t have Hebrew names. What happens in that case is that your Hebrew name would be Daniel ben Avraham v’Sarah, after Abraham and Sarah, the founders of the Jewish people.
Someone’s Hebrew name isn’t necessarily the same as their first name in English. Often, they have the same first letter, but not always (often true of converts- we get to pick our own Hebrew names when we convert). There are certain first names that are associated more with Christianity that most observant Jews would probably avoid (Christopher or Christine would be obvious examples), but Jews don’t necessarily have biblical first names. You might, however, meet a Jew named Christine- she’s probably either a convert, or comes from a fairly non-observant (possibly interfaith) family. You’re not required to legally change your English first name when you convert (and most converts to Conservative or Reform Judaism don’t), even if it’s something obviously Christian.
Maybe, maybe not. The most obvious difference that I can think of offhand is that we can drive on Shabbat, but only to synagogue. But we’re not required to do that- we can stay at home or walk to synagogue. I can’t find anything online laying out the Conservative movement’s rules on Shabbat, unfortunately. I did have to read a booklet on it when I was converting.
There are Conservative standards on how one should keep Shabbat, but each individual’s practice will vary. Some people might be stricter, some more lenient. Generally, during the conversion process, it’s encouraged to be fairly strict, just so you can get an idea what full Shabbat observance might be like.
My parents (Mom Catholic, Pop non-Catholic Christian) got married in a Catholic church (main part!) in 1965. Pop just had to promise not to stand in the way of the kids being raised Catholic. He was converted soon after anyway.
Yep. Only Catholics in good standing should receive communion in a Catholic church. Our pastor has been known to make a gracious announcement before communion on days like Christmas when a lot of folks attend for the only time that year: “Would all Catholics who are disposed to receive please come forward.” Since missing Mass all year is a mortal sin, this rules out those folks.
Civil divorce does nothing to your communion with the Church and you can receive the sacrament. You’re still married in the eyes of the Church and have not done wrong. It’s remarriage after divorce that would be an issue.
My non-Catholic (basically non-religious) sister and her Catholic husband got married in the main part of a Catholic church last year, though they did not have a Nuptial Mass. The church where they got married was small- I don’t know if it had a side chapel.
In the Diocese of Pittsburgh, at least, priests aren’t allowed to make a hard-and-fast rule saying that you can’t have a Nuptial Mass if one partner isn’t Catholic.
Don’t they go to confession for that before Mass?
I take it confession would be another religious tradition it would be rude for non-Catholics to participate in?
They might or they might not…depends on the person. If they did, they would be OK to take communion (many who DON’T go to confession will also take communion, but I suppose that is between them & God. A traditional Catholic would consider that another mortal sin.
I don’t know if “rude” would describe it, exactly…it would be odd, I suppose. It’s not a group activity, so it’s not like you would be doing it to just go along with the crowd (as in taking communion at a wedding mass). There is a specific format for confession, which, if you didn’t know it, the priest would know that you weren’t Catholic/never had your “first” confession, where they train you how to do it. So it might get kind of awkward! But I doubt the priest would be offended or anything. He might ask is you just want someone to talk to…a counselor or some such.
Confession as in the sacrament, yes, you are supposed to be Catholic and have received first confession. As *Sarahfeena ** said, if someone just needed to talk about something a priest would be available or suggest a counselor. But individual confessions are sometimes said in the context of a communal reconciliation service which certainly anyone could attend.
*As when Jerry Seinfeld goes into the confessional to talk to the priest about Dr. Watley making Jewish jokes. He sees the kneeler and crouches down to sit on it.
I remember thinking about the confession thing when I was in Italy on my honeymoon. We visited a lot of historic churches, many of which had confessional booths. I don’t go to a lot of Catholic churches normally, and I’d never seen a confessional booth before.
There seems to be a movement in American churches (at least the ones I’ve been to) away from hiding in the confessional and toward having a face-to-face confession with the priest.
Yesterday’s Torah portion, Vaet-chanan, indicates a different position. In Deuteronomy chp. 5, Moses reprieses the Ten Commandments. I paraphrase the relevant one:
That seems to pretty clearly state that a Jew cannot require a non-Jew to perform work on Shabbat.
The discussion by Zahava and Anne Neville about a Conservative Jew’s capability of keeping an Orthodox-level Shabbat has led me to wonder could I do it, without “cheating” by staying at an Orthodox home. The obvious points are: No adjusting electric lights, no use of fire (includes driving), no cooking, no carrying money, no tearing toilet paper. What else would it take?
Okay. Accepted Orthodox halacha is that if it’s forbidden for a Jew to do on Shabbat, I can’t directly ask you to do it. If I accidentally left the light on in my bedroom and would like to have it turned off before I go to sleep, I can’t ask my Catholic neighbor to turn it off for me. But I can hint-- “Hey Patrick. So I was noticing how bright it was in my room. I guess I left the light on in my room. Oh well-- I can’t do anything about it now that it’s the Sabbath.” Etc.
The verse you mentioned, Deuteronomy 5:14 for those keeping score, is more specific than the English translation would imply. The exact passage is, “And the seventh day is Shabbat [a day of rest] for Hashem your G-d; You shall not do any work: you and your son and your daughter and your servant and your maidservant and your ox and your donkey and your every animal and the ger inside your gates, so that your slave and your maidservant may rest like you.” I have intentionally not translated the word ger, which many English bibles (and you, Scuba_Ben) translate as “foreigner.” Though it literally does mean foreigner or stranger, it’s used in many places throughout the Torah to mean “convert.” So the passage probably doesn’t mean to say that the members of other nations that live among you should also refrain from work. More likely it means to specify that converts must also keep the Shabbat in the same way as born Jews.
My gosh. This is a big question. Okay. No use of electricity at all, whether it involves something resembling fire or not (completing a circuit of any kind is a transgression of the prohibition against building, believe it or not.) No writing or erasing, including drawing, writing in icing on a cake, etc. No planting, watering of plants, or plowing (this includes, for instance, dragging a bench with legs across the ground, as it might turn over earth). No cooking or baking of any kind. This includes reheating foods unless done with awareness of very specific restrictions. Liquids can never be reheated. No preparing on Shabbat for after Shabbat. No carrying of anything in public property unless there is an eruv. No repairing anything. No kneading. That includes making a dough out of something that wasn’t; for instance, taking a bowl of flour and pouring water over it immediately makes some of the flour into dough, so it falls under kneading. No sorting/ separating mixtures into categories, especially of good and bad. This encompasses everything from sorting silverware into the proper compartments in the drawer to cutting the fat off your steak. No tearing anything, not just toilet paper. No sewing. No tying of knots (slipknots and single bows are okay) or untying of knots. No dying or painting. No smoothing. (This means using bar soap or lipstick, for instance, because you’d be smoothing their surfaces.) No building or breaking apart. No grinding.
That’s just off the top of my head. There are tons of minutiae that I’m not thinking of, or that I think are just too minute-sounding to spend time on here. There are exceptions to be made in some areas for food preparation, and things are laxer when you’re caring for the seriously ill. I know some of them sound insane. People will try to tell you that what’s prohibited is creative or constructive activity, which is true to a certain extent, but there are certain things you’ll have trouble fitting into that category. Basically, it’s that anything done in the construction or service of the Tabernacle, and all related activities, are forbidden.
This is really straying from the main thrust of the thread, so I apologize, but I hope this answers your question.
[QUOTE=Revenant ThresholdIn a Mosque I can remove my shoes. I can participate and be acting politely.[/QUOTE]
No! You are not acting politely if you participate in worship services in a Mosque if you are not Muslim.
The Koran commands Muslims to bow down with others (Muslims) and not to worship with those who do not (bow down to God.) One Iman (prayer leader) comes to mind who would be upset if he found out a non-Muslim was joining in worship.
I’ve walked out of a Mosque just before prayers when the Iman prattled on about how Jews are an enemy of Islam. I was not going to bow down with a man that used God’s religion to spread hate.
Friend of mine who used to be the prayer leader for our neighborhood’s small mosque advised me that participating in the service (bowing down, etc.) for me as a non-Muslim would not be the thing to do; however, there would be no problem with me observing the service and listening to the sermon.