I used to eat em when I lived in the US and before I cared what I ate. The cupcakes are very good, Twinkies are just a sugar shot horror. I’ve not eaten either in over a decade so my memory may be rose colored about the cupcakes.

I appreciate your honesty. I don’t know the Chabad rabis in Japan or if they are qulaified to handle conversions. There are plenty of poskim that can be asked questions by email or phone if need be.

Unfortunately for gerim, they actually are expected (according to Orthodox view) to follow certain minimum standards such as Shabbat and Kashrut in order to be accepted. Yes, this is more stringent than for born Jews, who are always considered Jews. Even if they claim to be atheists and deny the Torah, they can always change their position without having to convert.

Conservative is a very broad term, some will call non Jews up to the Torah, some are egalitarian, others are stricter. As a “frum” Jew I obviously follow the stricter Orthodox point of view.

A non observant relative of mine married a non Jew that had a conservative conversion to please her parents, they are totally un-observant today. He might go to synagogue once a year “for the show”. I ask you, what was the point? Who have they fooled besides themselves?

Again

I got no minhagim of my own. Maybe “inherit” isnt the right word, but I follow from what my rabbi holds. As far as my status goes, thats between me and my community at best. As for “second opinions”, you want I should ask the local Chabad rabbis? Thats the only other choice in this part of the world. I’m not learning from them and their job is not to teach converts.

Me and the wife are doing this process Conservative. I know that there are always going to be people who will question/doubt/deny, but thats on them. I hope to improve my adherence to halacha more over time but thats between me and G-d. Nowhere have I heard that its written that the Ger has to live up to a higher standard than the Jew by birth. I’ve already met gerim who try to out frum the born orthodox. Thats their choice.

If the day comes before my dip in the mikveh that I realize I cant fully accept the yoke of Torah then I’ll be happy to live as a gentile. Otherwise I’m not gonna offer excuses for my life.

This isnt to lash out at you, I can understand your words come from a reasonable position. I dont pretend to understand things as well as many people here so if I’m talkin foolishness please excuse me.

PS Maimonodes sure was right about the health issues of mixing. I aint gonna say no more.

S.A psecifically says cheese that is hard (curled by rennet), 6 months old or has worms in it. Again, not 100% sure about what these all are, I imagine cream or cottage cheese aren’t considered hard, various opinions regarding pizza cheese.

Ps. to Chris,

Sefardim and Ashkenazim hold 6 hours from meat to milk, few Dutch people do 1 hour, based on an old minhag handed down by family tradition. Not too sure if you can “inherit” that, you might want ot get a second opinion. Last thing you need is to become Jewish and then have people doubting you kashrut and/or status.

I don’t want to come off sounding like the Chumra police, but I do suggest you “cross the T’s and dot the I’s” in order to get the process done right.

????? ?????? doesn’t mean the cheese is wormy — it’s either moldy (like blue cheese) or holey (like swiss).