Religion and identity

In 1959, at age 27, after nine months of study, Taylor converted from
Christian Science to Judaism,[48] taking the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel.
She stated that her conversion was something she had long considered and
was not related to her marriages. After Mike Todd's death, Taylor said that
she "felt a desperate need for a formalized religion," and explained that
neither Catholicism nor Christian Science were able to address many of the
"questions she had about life and death."[7]:175

Biographer Randy Taraborrelli notes that after studying the philosophy of
Judaism for nine months, "she felt an immediate connection to the
faith."[7]:176 Although Taylor rarely attended synagogue, she stated, "I'm
one of those people who think you can be close to God anywhere, not just in
a place designed for worship . . . "[7]:176 At the conversion ceremony,
with her parents present as witnesses and in full support of her decision,
Taylor repeated the words of Ruth:

    . . . for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I
will lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God my God.[7]:176

Taylor was a follower of Kabbalah and a member of the Kabbalah Centre.[1]

During an interview when she was 55, she describes how her inner sense of
identity, when a child actress, kept her from giving in to many of the
studio's demands, especially with regard to altering her appearance to fit
in:

    God forbid you do anything individual or go against the fad. But I
did. I figured this looks absurd. And I agreed with my dad: God must have
had some reason for giving me bushy eyebrows and black hair. I guess I must
have been pretty sure of my sense of identity. It was me. I accepted it all
my life and I can't explain it. Because I've always been very aware of the
inner me that has nothing to do with the physical me.[17]

She adds that she began to recognize her "inner being" during her
adulthood:

    Eventually the inner you shapes the outer you, especially when you
reach a certain age, and you have been given the same features as everybody
else, God has arranged them in a certain way. But around 40 the inner you
actually chisels your features. . . Life is to be embraced and en

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