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.

Dinner w/ the Rabbinic Students, etc.

Last night was the birthday dinner for two friends of mine, both of whom are married to rabbinic students here in town. So, almost the entire party was, in some way, related to HUC except for me. I enjoy hanging out with my rabbinic student friends because they can go from talking about midrash and Rambam to the fact that someone's son's girlfriend is a horrible driver to Israel to teaching to Einstein's spirituality to who is dating who to dirty jokes and back again. I love being with people who understand my language and who aren't going to ask me what I'm talking about if I mention something Jewish. I love that no one there will judge you for eating a cheeseburger, but that someone is sure to point out that the birthday cake is not pareve for those who care. I love when the talk turns to Shabbat.

Tonight is Tot Shabbat, a Pre-K through 2nd Grade dinner, and a family service. The temple will be teeming with kids and it is one of the few times I consider skipping Friday night completely. But my friends with small children will likely be there, and I do enjoy being with them on Shabbat, so I'll go. I'll just take preventative Advil before I leave.

Tomorrow is my first Torah study w/ my rabbi in quite awhile, since before the Biennial. I went to another temple last week because we didn't have services, and it was good, but I'll be glad to be back in my home temple and learning with my rabbi.

And Sunday is Religious School. I have a faculty meeting afterwards to map out lesson plans for the 2nd half of the year, which I don't really want to do. Not because I don't want to be prepared, but I teach 4th grade Hebrew and the next class really depends on what we get done in the current class. I plan for Tuesday after Sunday, and for Sunday after Tuesday. If the kids aren't getting things quickly, I'll choose to spend more time on something and not move on. But, I'll go because that's what I'm supposed to do. Hopefully I can get out of the all-city in service which is next week, I believe. Those are usually kinda crappy.