A Baptist Among the Jews

Like most Christians, Mary Blye Howe was uninformed about Jewish ritual and tradition. To satisfy her curiosity she joined a Jewish study group held in the home of a Hasidic rabbi. A Baptist Among the Jews is Howe's first-person account of her eye-opening experience of studying with that welcoming group and how this experience led her to a deeper, richer relationship with her God. While learning about the traditions of Judaism and studying the Torah, Howe discovered a new world of worship and ritual that expanded her experience to include several different Jewish groups, among them Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. She reveled in the joys of arguing with God (even though God always wins), synagogue-hopping on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and dancing with a sefer torah through the streets of Dallas. Page after page, we join Howe on her religious quest and discover how her once-narrow concept of God has expanded with her ability to read the scriptures and understand this new faith. Howe's profound and transforming experiences helped her develop a new sense of worship— one that eschews spectatorship in favor of participation.

Acknowledgments xvi

Foreword xviii

Chapter 1 Hanging with the Jews 1

Chapter 2 Arguing with God 23

Chapter 3 Dancing with the Torah 39

Chapter 4 Discovering the Passionate Hebrew God 67

Chapter 5 Women in Yarmulkes 89

Chapter 6 Men in Black Hats 107

Chapter 7 Hungering for My Roots 133

Chapter 8 A Spiritual Journey 153

Afterword 169

Judaism 101 173

Glossary 189

Recommended Reading 193

Notes 195

References 199

The Author 203

Mary Blye Howe is a cradle Southern Baptist who has found a warm, welcoming second home among several Jewish congregations in the Dallas, Texas, area. She has published over 100 articles in more than 60 diverse periodicals, including Entrepreneur, the Dallas Morning News, and the Chicago Tribune. "At the heart of A Baptist Among the Jews is a willingness to enter into fellowship. Thanks both to Mary Blye Howe's chutzpah and to the warmth and generosity of her Jewish hosts, we too are invited . . . . I hope some bright young independent film director will be alert to the potential of Howe's story, which could become another My Big Fat Greek Wedding."
—From the Foreword by John Wilson, editor, Christianity Today and Books and Culture

"The great Jewish theologian Martin Buber once wisely observed that religions are like houses of worship and that you can only look through the windows from the outside of those other than your own. Mary Blye Howe comes disturbingly close to proving him wrong. She is clearly a Baptist but she has peered through the windows of so many different Jewish prayer halls that she has acquired a remarkably clear vision of American Judaism. Or, to put it another way, Ms. Howe seems simply to have done it all and got it right . . . . this book is kosher."
—From the Afterword by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, author, Honey from the Rock

"This book does not so much explain Judaism as much as it provides a 'feel' as to what it means to enter into Judaism as an outsider. You will get a taste of the mystical and joyful excitement of our Jewish friends that will carry you way beyond any understanding of Judaism as some kind of legalistic religion. As a man with a Jewish son-in-law, I found this book most helpful."
—Tony Campolo, Eastern University, St. Davids, PA; author, Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God and 20 Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid to Touch

"A fascinating journey of religious and spiritual identity— Howe shows us that all people have a powerful connection with one another when they search for meaning and purpose."
—Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar, regional director, Great Lakes Council and Chicago Federation of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; author, God Whispers: Stories of the Soul, Lessons of the Heart and The Dance of the Dolphin: Finding Prayer, Perspective, and Meaning in the Stories of Our Lives