Reddit reviews The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary

Read Edith Hamilton's Mythology and then read the Bible. If your university offers a Bible as Literature class take it, otherwise you could look into taking one in the religions department. You'll have more motivation to get through it if your grade depends on it. Plus, the benefits of actually learning the material so you can recognize it on your own while you are reading, with the ease of the subconscious. I also highly recommend this book

http://www.amazon.com/Five-Books-Moses-Translation-Commentary/dp/0393019551

It's a new translation of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and it's written in a modern literary style which is quite impressive.

Indeed. I am using the Robert Alter commentary to assist: http://amzn.to/1mTl5W4 I also have C.S.Lewis NSRV bible to help along the way. I certainly found it very challenging to read Leviticus and Numbers. With regards to moral quandaries, it certainly helps to have a reference section to guide you. I see the first 5 books in my own opinion a narrative of God trying to find the use for man. Abraham and Moses temper the wrath of God by debating his retribution on humanity at several points. These bits are where I feel chills down my spine..

Well, my two cents:

Some of my family are Jewish, but I'm not halakhically Jewish and I grew up with basically agnostic parents. My religious upbringing was a hodgepodge of Catholicism and neo-paganism. I'm your age and an Orthodox conversion candidate.

I'll just get this question out of the way: why are you Reform?

Unlike many other patrilineal Jews, I don't have an internalized Jewish identity. I'm cultivating it from scratch, like you. I basically think that since we didn't have the advantage of being born Jewish, the only framework we have for becoming Jewish is halakha. I don't really question Reform Jews who had a Jewish upbringing - the halakha is irrelevant to them. They don't need Orthodoxy validating them.

But how can we as potential converts possibly assert that kind of confidence in a Jewish identity? I'm very sorry to seem skeptical, but what is the difference between a Reform convert and a righteous gentile/Noahide with lots of Jewish friends? I just don't see how I can claim to be Jewish without first becoming observant and fulfilling a halakhic conversion. Otherwise I feel like I'm playing Jewish.

If you're open to Orthodoxy, of course, I definitely recommend it. If you're shying away from it, I'm really curious about why. And if you are doing well financially, perhaps you can travel for shabbat. I know a man who travels 5+ hours to Brooklyn every week, since he moved to a town devoid of Jews and he grew up "as Orthodox as they come", so he says.

Anyway, some resources:

• One Shul
  
  
• Punk Torah
  
  Those first two will keep you busy for awhile.
  
  
• Orthodox Conversion Yahoo Group (this group is actually more to the right than I am, but it's a great resource and the rabbi is extremely responsive)
  
  
• Frum Satire (high traffic blog with useful discussion in the comments of the posts, and the blogger is an earnest and lovable dork)
  
  
• Dov Bear (I don't follow this blogger as much as I used to, but he seems to have a diverse - and political - audience and I would end up learning something new every time I went there.)
  
  
• RCA Conversion Standards
  
  
• Koren Publishers Jerusalem (I use their siddur and chumash)
  
  
• The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary I love this translation while I'm learning Hebrew, and it's extraordinarily poetic. I can't recommend Robert Alter enough. This is probably not a suuuuuper-necessary book, though.
  
  Feel free to PM me about conversion stuff. I can sound like kind of a hardass but I'm honestly bursting with enthusiasm. :-)