Outpost from the cold road.

I am currently on a business trip, but I have a bunch of free time on this kind of trip, so I'll try to do some posting.

This past Saturday I attended services at HUC (Hebrew Union College) here in Cincinnati. The occasion was the 5th year sermon of a good friend of mine (and intern at my temple). I was excited to go, not only because he would be speaking on a Torah portion close to my heart, but because I've really seen his confidence in giving (and quality of) sermons grow over the past year and a half. I'm' glad I got to go, too. Because he gave an amazing sermon, talking about the gift of the Torah and how important the act of learning and study is to Judaism. I wouldn't do it justice to even try and capture it in condensed form here. What was really neat is seeing how many people from my temple came out to support him, as well, especially since most of them wouldn't have been at services on a Saturday morning otherwise. I will miss my friend when he is ordained this spring and he and his wife move to wherever he finds a job; they have become a large part of my life and are a part of my growing Jewish family. When his wife (also my good friend) and I walked into the sanctuary he exclaimed "my wife's here! and my other wife!" I give him a hard time, but mostly I try to challenge him because I know he is going to be a great rabbi. When one of his aliyot honorees did not show up he said he was going to give it to me but didn't since he thought I wouldn't want to be put on the spot in front of a crowd of rabbinic students and professors. My response was that it would have been an honor because he would be the one doing the asking.

I love living in a city where I get a chance to meet and interact with rabbinic students. I just don't like to see my friends leave.