Contemplating religious conversion - with all that is entailed in striking out on a radically different path - clearly testifies to serious thinking, a willingness to change, and courageous resolve. These qualities precisely distinguished the first Jew, Abraham, as he broke with his family's beliefs and, at the behest of G-d, began a journey which brought him finaly to the Promised Land. These traits are not only admirable, but crucial to the spiritual voyage. They already qualify the candidate for conversion to embark on exploring the Jewish religion and the jewish people.
The Jewish religion is not simply a calling; conversion to it is not simply a profession of faith. It is a network of profound ideas and rich insights, which during its long history, has generated the fundamental beliefs of all western religion. It has contributed to the civilized world its crowning ideals and its most glorious convictions - among them the idea of one G-d; a system of jurisprudence; a structure of ethics and morals; the Bible and the Prophets; the idea of a prayerbook and a House of Prayer; numerous ideas, ideals, institutions, and, not the least, a worldview that has dominated western culture for 2500 years.
It takes agresive thinking to comprehend this new area of belief, rather than a declaration of faith, and it takes compelling convicting to say, "This is how I see the truth. I must now enter the Convenant of Abraham."
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