The reality of it is that I would not have done any of those things before I met my husband. After all, the one and only time my mom bought lox, she cooked them in the frying pan! And, I don't ever remember eating Chinese food, although I do remember that there were two Chinese restaurants in my town. That was very exotic food for my family.
What I found particularly interesting about the day was how comfortable I felt at Services. And, this was no ordinary service. We had to be in the city for the morning, and we had a few hours to entertain ourselves. Since this is a common occurrence these days, I had come up with the idea of going to Services some Saturday morning. So, my husband looked up congregations in that neighborhood. He found a Reconstructionist Synagogue that was having services this morning, so we decided to go. It's not uncommon for small congregations to hold services in a building that isn't a synagogue, so the location didn't surprise us.
When we arrived, there was one elderly woman searching for a Challah cover and table cloth, so she could have a proper Oneg Shabbat! She never found the Challah cover but was happy to have found a table cloth. Since attending Shabbat services is not required, there are times when a service is not well-attended. In fact, you must have a minyan (technically, 10 Jewish men over the age of Bar Mitvah - Reconstructionist Jews are happy with just about any 10 people!) in order to recite certain prayers at a Shabbat service. About 10 minutes after our arrival, another woman, about 20 years our senior, arrived. Both were delighted that we were there. They thought maybe one or two more would join us, but not more due to the severe cold and dusting of snow on the ground. About 20 minutes past 10, the service began with the four of us seated around a table. The elderly woman led the service, and the four of us recited prayers and sang songs. They encouraged us to select tunes that were familiar to us. Periodically, they'd find moments in the service to find out a bit about our lives and to share something about their own. One of the women was born and raised in the Netherlands; she wasn't raised Jewish but knew she had Jewish ancestors prior to the Holocaust. She decided to connect with Judaism as a young woman who had moved to the United States. The other woman lost many family members in the Holocaust and spent much of her life as a Reform Jew. She was happy to see the Reform movement becoming a bit more traditional.
As the service continued, one retired gentleman arrived - and then another, probably closer to our age. The elderly service leader was doing a "drash," or a d'var Torah - a teaching about this week's Torah portion. She was well-prepared and encouraged us to discuss our own thinking about the portion and how it connected to today. Both of these women became Bat Mitzvah as adults. Both of these women were serious about their Judaism - serious enough to welcome two wandering Jews into their little Shul.
One of those "Jews" is technically an interfaith Mom. I say "technically" because I was clearly very comfortable in this environment. I was familiar with the ritual, the prayers, and the conversation. I got married at 28; I've been married for 27 years. I've been living in a Jewish home nearly as long as I lived in a Catholic home, nearly my entire adult life. I've raised a 21 year old Jew and an 18 year old Jew. Yes, an interesting way to spend our wedding anniversary.
