I see I’m already too late to post on this thread — it’s descended into dissections of davening nusach and Broadway shows — but I felt I had to respond to a couple of earlier comments. I post here as ger tzedek 15 years in.
Popa_bar_abba: I almost always enjoy your posts and laughed out loud at “There’s one weird guy in every room. If you can’t find him, it’s you.” I can always tell right away that I’m the weirdest guy in any room I walk into, doesn’t matter where.
I have to admit I’m still struggling to understand why Chazal were mesakein that geirus should continue through all the doros of the galus. I’ve heard some of the kabbalistic reasons for it, I’ve heard the inyan that even the neshamos of the geirim were at Har Sinai, and I guess al pi seichel I can maybe understand how Hashem would want to give individual goyim the chance to be shomer Torah umitzvos. And I have to admit that my life has seen many immeasurable improvements since I was misgayer, and I shep a lot of yiddishe nachas from my kids.
But I still struggle with the question as to whether geirus, on balance, is a good thing. I think a lot of people — both born Jews and geirim — misunderstand and misapply the mitzvah of ahavas geirim. And I think there’s just too much pain involved.
I will forever be haunted by the question my oldest son asked at his seudas bar mitzvah, after he had already been to friends’ bar mitzvahs: “How come nobody’s here?”