As we come off of Passover—our Seders, our retelling, our traditions—I hope everyone had a meaningful holiday. Passover is one of the few times in our Jewish calendar where the explanation for why we do what we do is actually built into the experience. It’s thorough, it’s multi-layered, and it’s designed for a variety of different learners. So many of our other holidays require a certain level of curiosity, study, or background knowledge to really access their meaning. But Passover just… brings it to you. It meets you where you are.

For many of us, it’s also the holiday where we are most likely to have non-Jews at our Seder tables. Which adds yet another layer—because now we’re not just telling the story of the Exodus, we’re explaining everything. The characters, the rituals, the rules of kashrut (from basic to nuanced), and even the culture—yes, including trying to explain gefilte fish. Whether we feel qualified or not, we step into the role of teacher and translator.

Which is why it feels especially fitting that, coming off this holiday of retelling and learning, Temple Sinai is relaunching its Introduction to Judaism class, led by Rabbi Benjamin. This is actually a program we had before the pandemic, and it’s been overdue for a return.

Many of the people in the class will be those in our conversion program, or considering it. But I want to be very clear: it’s not just for them. I’ll be there too. And here’s my confession—I’m a huge impostor when it comes to my own Jewish knowledge.

It’s true! I have a decent grasp of phonetic Hebrew. I know the standard tunes. I have chunks of text memorized. But if you push me into a more theoretical conversation, you’ll quickly find that I’m both elusive and vague. And I don’t think I’m alone in that.

Many of us “dyed-in-the-wool” Jews are deeply steeped in Jewish culture and tradition—we know how to do Jewish life—but we don’t always have a strong textual foundation or a clear understanding of the thousands of years of history between the Torah and today. And that can create this quiet, shared impostor syndrome that we don’t really talk about.

So I’m talking about it.

Partly, I’m saying this because I want you to join me in this class. I’m genuinely looking forward to an opportunity to keep my mouth shut, my ears open, and fill in some gaps in my knowledge.

But more than that, I want to encourage a more honest dialogue in our community—especially between those of us who were born Jewish and those who chose Judaism later in life. There’s often a perceived gap between “the Jew” and “the convert,” and in my experience, that gap is largely self-imposed.

Some of the people in our conversion program are far more learned than I am. And yet, they don’t always feel confident taking up space in our community in that way. That’s a loss for all of us.

What would it look like if we dropped the pretense a little? If we admitted what we don’t know? If we let ourselves actually learn from each other?

Passover reminds us that learning, questioning, and retelling are not side activities—they are central to who we are. So let’s carry that forward. Let’s show up curious, a little humble, and willing to grow—together.

Your total fraud but willing to learn,
Tova McGilvray