|
by
Melissa Oringer
(c) Melissa Oringer, 1998-2001, All rights reserved
I'm
Wiccan and I'm Jewish. In my solitary practice, I could also be
described as a Jewish Witch (in the sense that there is no Wiccan
tradition associated with it).
I have
never stopped being a Jew. That's simply who I am. It's my family,
my tribe, my people. I don't always agree with them and sometime
I want to smack a few upside the head (oh, to get my hands on Netanyahu,
that schmuck!), but they're still my family, for better or for worse.
I incorporate
the tools of my family into my practice (the kiddush cup, the menorah,
the braided candle, the candle sticks, the spice box, the hand of
God...). I have a fondness for challah. I have my own beautiful
white lace prayer shawl and an embroidered yamulkah. I re-recognize
and encompass Shabbat every week, invoking her as Goddess - Bride,
Queen and the state of Rest. I find pleasure and power in the contemplation
of words and their hidden meanings. I'm slightly (ahem) opinionated
and enjoy the magick of the mind.
Jewitchery.
In
my mind, the Jewish approach to deity is that of an immeasurably
unknowable presence that beggars the mind's ability to comprehend
and SHOULD NOT be anthropomorphized. When that happens, you get
what has occurred throughout history - the word "God"
becomes a name instead of a designation, and human attributes get
assigned. People meddle and use the associations for political and
socio-economic power. I left the traditional practice of Judaism
because it had become trapped in secularity and no longer seemed
to access the sacred.
In
my mind, the Wiccan practice is to respect that awesome source and
instead interact with what we can hope to comprehend and *work with*,
the Goddess and God and the myriad funnels and forms and potentials
that are part of that whole. We also may attempt to work with that
unknowable Oneness if we dare.
Not
all Jews who are Wiccans care to incorporate their past into their
present. The factors are numerous - their relationship with their
family, which part of the culture raised them (I was raised Reformed,
as opposed to Orthodox), how easily they can or cannot separate
from their roots.
I find
it not just difficult, but impossible to divide myself from my Jewish
identity. Thus I embrace it, as a witch.
Blessings,
-M
(c)
Melissa Oringer, 1998-2001, All rights reserved
|
