Jacob is Kosher!

Well actually he just completed the final step to his conversion to Judaism – immersion in a ritual bath called a mikveh. The first step was his circumcision which we did last March. At that time he was given his Hebrew name (he was named after my mother). The next step (which had two parts) we did today. The first part was a meeting with the Bet Din which is a group of three rabbis. They asked me questions about my background/Jewish upbringing and how I planned to raise Jake. The second part was to dunk Jake in the mikveh. He had to go completely under and I had to let go for a second so that the water touched him everywhere. He did a really great job and didn’t cry at all (although I’m not sure he really liked it too much). I had to say a couple of prayers and then we were done and Jacob was officially declared Jewish. We got dressed and we got a certificate to commemorate the event. It was a nice present to receive for Hanukkah!

I tried to take some pictures but because Jake is constantly in motion these days it’s hard to get any decent shots. Here are a few.