Married to the Empire

Friday, August 10, 2007

On reading

My favorite author is Chaim Potok. Most of his stories revolve around Jewish characters and the role of their faith in their lives. In my 2 favorite books, The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev, faith is a point of conflict. If ever an author could write beautiful prose that makes me think about faith and relationships, Potok is it.

Ruf is on a Jewish kick right now, as admittedly am I. We've been studying the Old Testament with our middle school Sunday school class for the past 2 years, so we've become more and more fascinated by Judaism. In fact, Ruf recently contacted a local Messianic Jewish congregation to ask about visiting and asking questions. He's especially interested in Judaism in light of accepting Jesus as Messiah. It's an interesting faith combination.

Because he's so interested in all things Jewish at the moment, I asked him if this means I can talk him into reading Potok. Ruf, unfortunately, is not a reader. It's one of those weird opposites attract things. I have a degree in English, used to teach English, am a published writer, and yet, I married a man who doesn't like to read.

Ruf's idea of compromise on the issue of reading Potok: watch the movie version of The Chosen. *sigh*

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, that means you can tell him everything you have read and he will discuss the essentials, not if you have replicated the content well. LOL!

Cathy VanPatten said...

Hey, Ewok! ckensington here! I saw your link to your blog on BHG today. Very nice!

A suggestion about visiting speakers, though: You might want to invite a Jewish person to your class who is not "messainic," as you will get a much better idea of that faith. Unfortunately, many groups that call themselves "Messainic Jews" are not Jewish at all, by faith or heritage. They are fundamentalist Protestants who seek to prosletyze to Jewish people.

Cathy VanPatten said...

Oops! I can't spell tonight. Messianic. NOT messainic. I'm not even sure what that would mean! LOL!

Anne Marie@Married to the Empire said...

CK, I'm so glad to see you! You're one of the ones I've really missed over there.

I'm glad you mentioned that. We were just working under the assumption that they are Jewish by birth, then accepted Christ as Savior. My husband has been emailing with someone from a local Messianic Jewish congregation. Now that I've read the email with what you said in mind, I think that's the case with the guy he's been talking with. He has a very non-Jewish surname (which doesn't necessarily mean anything), but he received his degree in Jewish studies from a Christian college.

So now I'm thinking what you said is the case. Hmmm. We may need to contact an actual Jewish synagogue.