Like Son, Like Father

I pledged to be a halachic Jew in time for my son’s bar mitzvah 

As told to Rivka Streicher by Moshe Murray

Prologue

Back in the 1980s, I was 35 years old, non-Jewish, and a member of a Protestant Episcopalian church. My wife Marcie was Jewish and interested in learning about her roots, and we joined Congregation Ohr Shalom, a Conservative synagogue in Summit, New Jersey.

It was a wintry February evening, and the rabbi at Ohr Shalom was hosting his Jewish-themed “book club,” when the subject of Miriam’s Well came up. I’d never heard of it before.

At some point, the rabbi said, “The chassidim believe that Miriam’s Well followed the Jews around the desert for 40 years.”