Never Have I Ever

Psalm 119:99 says "Mikol M'lamdai Hiskalti" -. From everyone I have learned How true that is.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be performing any conversions while stationed on Okinawa, let alone nine in one day. I did not think that I would have to stretch as a rabbi or feel the weight of the responsibility of teaching someone and converting them to Judaism so soon in my career.

I have loved every minute of it and continuously worried that I was not doing a good enough job, not teaching enough topics, not enough depth in the subjects, too much frontal teaching ... I doubted myself.

And yet, they kept coming back, thirsting for more, questioning with new found knowledge and desiring to understand on a deeper, more personal level. 

It was my great fortune that while each of them has been on an incredibly unique journey, our paths crossed at the right time.

Better still, is that these are not just people who wanted to convert, they were and are my friends, which made presiding over their conversions that much more emotional for me. I have spent the last two weeks trying not to cry tears of joy while teaching them because all I could think of was how proud I was to be their rabbi and friend. This day has been one of the most precious to me in my life.

The best Moment for me, WAS after coming out of the East China Sea (Thank you God for the natural Mikvah ), I hugged Them and said, "welcome home." (That and knowing That I Converted Minnie Mouse. No, seriously. Yoko used to be Minnie Mouse at Tokyo Disney!!)

Thank you to Jennifer, Maddie, Erika, Yagi, Yoko, Zach and Lianna for asking me to be with you as you became Jews; Ben and Elizabeth for choosing to take an affirmative step; to Debbie, Zach, Jason, Matthew, and Jed for helping this ritual run smoothly; to David and Yoni for being a part of the best Beit Din in the Pacific.

Though I know that being in the military means that our time together is guaranteed to be limited, I pray that I keep in touch with them, wherever they go because just as I have been there for one of the most trans formative moments of their lives , they have touched my life too.