This past shabbat was filled with even more awesome than the last. First of all I had dinner at Lisa and Alans. The Magills and their magildren were there and I got to talk to Danny a bit about stuff which is always really nice. I was wearing my purple scarf on my head (cause I felt like not wearing a kippah) and Alan said to me “You know Gella… you’re looking very traditional. Very (small c) conservative. Except you’re wearing pants. It kind of throws the whole thing off.” There was a pause. I thought about this for a minute. Then I started giggling. “What? What’s funny”

I hesitated.

“You only think I look conservative because I have my tzitzits tucked in.”

Much laughter. More on this subject in the next post.

Dinner was lovely, and there was, of course, scotch to follow. Funnily enough, it was Danny’s scotch. See, Lisa and Alan’s friend Adam was there, and he had brought a flask of scotch. Danny’s response? “Oh, I have some nice scotch with me. Lets open that up.”

Danny Magill, ladies and gentlemen. It was an 18 year old Glenfiddich. Very nice.

In the morning I went to Kehillat Kedem, a progressive egalitarian minyan that also meets at a school, and consists largely of American students, many of whom were folks I’d met in the Beit Midrash. Some were from CY, some from Pardes. Again, everything was conducted in Hebrew. This time around I did bring my Sim Shalom and my tallit. Turns out they use Sim Shalom there. I went to Kedem because Hillel invited me for lunch and told me that it was where he was going, so I decided it was worth checking out. The first guy to daven was someone I’d seen in the beit midrash. He had an interesting style of davening/reading… he really pronounced his ע and every dagesh. It was almost like listening to Arabic. I was given the third aliyah. That’s a nice thing about being new somewhere… you always get an aliyah. After services Hillel introduced me to some people, and I actually introduced Hillel to someone… a young rabbi dude (JTS trained) whom I had met at tfillah and who (sidenote) actually took me for a little walk around the area past kikar tzarfat. I think his name is Adam Rosenthal.

Ok so here are some pictures from that walk… NOT to be confused with pictures taken on shabbat. I do not take pictures on shabbat.

This is a tomb from the time of the Hasmoneans. It’s just… there. In the middle of this residential neighborhood.

This is the ancient graffiti on the wall… they think it’s a boat.

This is a giraffe. It is in a playground. Apparently it is famous.

So back to shabbat…

After shul Hillel and I and his brother Gilan, his brother in law Ariel, and a girl named Aviva all headed over to Hillel’s place for lunch. Hillel’s roommate Ben joined us. Conversation was lively and we discussed Aviva’s job as a Tzahal prosecutor of terrorists, Ariel’s research project on Jewish right-wing nutters, Yiddish, genealogy, and various other things. After this we played Taboo, which I had never played and which was fantastically fun.

After a little bit of quasi-napping during which Ariel and I discussed the nature of Conservative institutions, two other folks showed up for Seudat Shlishit, Juan and Abby to whom Hillel had introduced me at shul. They are JTS student. They are geeks. They are awesome. And they could easily be my new best friends. We were regaled by Juan with stories of naked men doing strange things in and around mikvaot.

…

It wasn’t what it sounds like. But it was hilarious.

After Ma’ariv and Havdalah (we also had Mincha in there after lunch) Hillel set up his laptop and projector so we could watch a movie on his wall. We watched The Chosen, which I hadn’t seen in a very long time. We all had fun (mostly Hillel and Abby) pointing out mistakes in the film regarding Chassidic and Jewish practices, things that the characters were doing and saying that would never happen in real life (and also that didn’t happen like that in the book) etc.

Abby and Juan walked me home and we stood on the corner of HaPalmach and Kharlap talking about JTS. They said some very nice things to me which I will not soon forget. They have also informed me (not suggested, but *informed* me) that I will be at The Yeshiva for two years, not one. We shall see.

I am happy. I am happy that I can make friends like that, and that people get excited to meet me. I’m happy that I’m here.

I had an interesting and surprisingly pleasant experience on Court Street some time ago. I was coming out of the bank and about to make a phone call when I heard a voice next to me ask “What are you, a Reform rabbi?” I turned and middle-aged man who certainly looked Jewish but showed no outward signs of affiliation was smiling at me as though he’d just made the greatest joke ever. I was wearing my green hat/kippah, and it was this that elicited the question. “No,” I told him, “I am not a Reform rabbi, but I do hope to be a Conservative rabbi soon. “Oh… oh, really…” he said. “Tell me something… the Conservative Movement, that committee, they just came out with that decision on gays, that thing that didn’t make any sense…” I sighed inwardly. This was going to be one of those conversations.

“Well,” I began, “it was actually three different position papers that were adopted…”

“And they said completely different things, right? Does that make any sense?”

“Here’s what happened,” I said firmly. “Three position papers were passed out of five that were submitted. The three papers basically said two different things: one position, Joel Roth’s position, states that the prohibitions against homosexuality still stand as they always have, that homosexual unions cannot be sanctioned, and that gay people cannot be rabbis. The other position, the one by Dorff, Nevins and Reisner, says that the only thing that is prohibited is the one specific sex act between males, and that homosexuality and homosexual relationships are not prohibited, that gays can have unions, not halachically tantamount to marriage but recognized by the community and presided over by Conservative rabbis, and that gays can and should be allowed to be rabbis.

“What this means,” I continued, somewhat surprised that I still had this man’s attention, “is that both are considered by The Movement to be halachically viable positions, so it now falls to individual communities, congregations and institutions to decide which position they are going to adopt.”

“Well, isn’t that a very divisive outcome?”

“One can look at it that way,” I conceded. “Or, you can view it as an affirmation of our movement’s commitment to pluralism.” This was, of course, a very simplistic statement on my part, and one which I would not be satisfied with were it given to me as plain as that, but this man was genuinely… I guess impressed is the only word. “Wow. That’s really interesting.” He looked up, pondering. “Yes… very interesting.” It was clear that he’d never thought this deeply about the issue. I was able to give a new perspective to a stranger on the street. I told the man that he should go to the Rabbinical Assembly’s website and read the teshuvot for himself. He thanked me and we walked on in different directions.

As I walked toward the subway I thought to myself “This is really what it’s all about.” And I felt good.