The Choosing: A Rabbi's Journey from Silent Nights to High Holy Days

by Andrea Myers

Overview

 In The Choosing, Andrea Myers fuses heartwarming anecdotes with rabbinic insights and humor to describe what it means to survive and flourish on your own terms. Portioned around the cycle of the Jewish year, with stories connected to each of the holidays, Myers draws on her unique path to the rabbinate-leaving behind her Christian upbringing, coming out as a lesbian, discovering Judaism in college, moving to Israel, converting, and returning to New York to become a rabbi, partner, and parent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813550954
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	312 KB

About the Author

RABBI ANDREA MYERS has shared her unique stories around the world. After receiving her BA in neuroscience from Brandeis University, she studied for two years in Jerusalem, and was ordained at the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR), an interdenominational seminary in New York City, where she later joined the faculty and administration and served as the copresident of the Association of Rabbis and Cantors. Rabbi Myers is a member of the New York Board of Rabbis. She currently lives in New York City, and has led congregations from the Rocky Mountains to the Borscht Belt.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ix

Author's Note xiii

Prologue 1

1 Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: Bird in Hand 3

2 The Secular New Year: Happy New Year 13

3 The New Year for Trees: The Lance and the Twig 19

4 The New Year for Animals: Because No One Is Allergic to Butterflies 39

5 Sukkot: Wild Turkey 54

6 Chanukah: Miller Light 78

7 Purim: Surprise Endings 94

8 Passover: I'll Be Home for Pesach 109

9 Lag B'Omer: The Work of the Chariot 118

10 Shavuot: Take Two Tablets 122

11 Tisha B'Av: Broken Sound 152

12 Elul: Hit-or-Mitzvah 167

13 Purim Katan: Customs and Gratuities Included 179

Editorial Reviews

"Rabbi Myers' memoir is joyful, but hers is a hard-won joy, and her brand of Judaism is embracing of all."

New York Jewish Week

"On a number of levels The Choosing was a fascinating read. The personal studies, interwoven with the search for religious conversion, make the balance of the piece hard to put down. Rabbi Myers' double journey dovetails beautifully to a very poignant, succinct final statement for the reader to reach."

Edge Publications

"How does the daughter of a Sicilian Catholic mother and a German Lutheran father, a lesbian parent of two children, and a convert to Judaism, become a rabbi? Andrea Myers tells you how in this utterly delightful account of her odyssey from Queens and Long Island, through four years at Brandeis, visits to Germany and Oxford and studying in Jerusalem, to her current home in New York. This account of the trials and tribulations of a gutsy young woman with a perceptive eye, a gift for story-telling, and a determination to do whatever has to be done to overcome whatever stands in her way of achieving her dream of becoming a devoted teacher of Judaism. The episodes in this tale structured around the festivals of the Jewish year and incorporating vignettes of her family's growing acceptance of what their daughter has done with her life, are simply a joy to read. More she stands as a paradigm of how a modern young American woman shapes her life experience."

Emeritus Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary of America - Rabbi Neil Gillman

"Filled with wisdom, humor, and the kind of contentment that only comes when an author has found his or her rightful place in the world, The Choosing is one of those books that leaves you feeling odly serene."

Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review

"My favorite Jewish lesbian used to be me until I read The Choosing. Rabbi Myers's journey from Baptism to rabbinical school is a must read."

Judy Gold

"On a number of levels The Choosing was a fascinating read. The personal studies, interwoven with the search for religious conversion, make the balance of the piece hard to put down. Rabbi Myers' double journey dovetails beautifully to a very poignant, succinct final statement for the reader to reach."

From the Publisher