Snow

Well it has been snowing here not all that hard it is much worse almost everywhere else North, south East and West. As normal the whole world seems to have come to a grinding holt just because of little snow! Ventured out today and its like a mad house out there so am very glad that I am not doing any shopping as Hanukah is over. Looking forward to Limmud which is in just 5 days time am already facebooking people to see if they are going to be there, as I said earlier I am not teaching this year but I am going to faciliate the morning chavurta, which will not mean that much to you unless you are a limmudnik.
Went to Rebecca's play (street theater) yesterday which was interesting esp. the puppet which was most impressive.

Old=Menorah

This Menorah belonged to my grandfather who owned a razor blade factory, during the war the government regulated the production of razor blades and the contract went to another company. So my grandfather's factor started making cigarette lighters instead. Because of the U-boat threat transport wood was difficult and matches unattainable. One Hanukkah the workers in the factor used spare parts to make Menorahs and one was given to my Grandfather and then it came into our house. For a long time it lived on a shelf until we became involved again with Judaism in a big way. I must say that it is rather hard to use, the candles do try and escape and its is showing its age. But because of its history we like to use it every year. I should say that I am talking about the large silvery one in the centre the others are from Chabad.

Last Hanukah posting.

So here is a nearly complete model of the Temple, which took ages to make and involved cutting and clueing and tapping the whole works rally. I left the roof of Holy of holies off but that aside its finished.

Temple

For complex reasons I am now in the middle of making a model of the Second Temple. Photos will follow. It is one of tthose models where you cut pices of cardbord out and stick them together it is taking rather a long time but i have to say that it looks rather good.

Classical Reform

There is a very interesting article in this week's issue of the JC (Jewish Chronicle) about a group of American Reform rabbis who want to move back towards 'Classical Reform' that is little ritual, almost no Hebrew Organ music, an emphasis or rationality, 'the eternal truths of Divine monotheism. This group is, apparently unhappy about the increase in "God talk' in American Reform as well as more interest in ritual and indeed halakhah. For those of you who know me, or have been reading my blog, will know that this is an area that I am looking at as part of my thesis. There has been an increase in interest in ritual in nearly all parts of the Non-Orthodox world, and even in the Orthodox world.

Speaking personally I like more ritual it adds meaning, and I like God to be part of my Judaism. Otherwise there is very little point. I think that this group is on the losing side anyway, anyone who is keen enough to do Jewish will want some substance to it. And any one who isn't isn't. Anyway i need to go as Hanukah candles need to be lit before Shabbat comes in.

And if anyone is wondering why i am Reform (albeit of the British type) it is because although I want ritual and substance I also want inclusiveness and egalitarianism. There I think that this post should have upset just about everybody. Chag Samech hanukah and shabbat shalom.

One more photo.

I now seem able to upload photos to this blog so I hope that it will be a bit less boring soon. In the photo in the post below the sticker in the window is to raise awareness of the problem of the trafficing of women and is a Hanukah suggestion from Tzeddek a left-wing Jewish organisation in California.

This one is just getting the hanukah menorah ready on first night.

Hanukah

This is a bit of an experiment as i am going to try and add some photos to this entry.

Dentist

Well I am now fully sorted for Hanukah gifting which is just as well as we will be doing it tomorow 8th night. I am also getting ready for xmass for my Non-Jewish friends (I am very pleased with two of these gifts) although i need to get a move on with posting the cards. Hanukah has been a lot of fun and today it is snowing!! As yet its not sticking but it is very beautiful and cold, which i like even if no-one else does. Today I had a very long session at the dentist about 80 minutes I was really really shaking when i came out and had to sit down for a while before even trying to head home. I have been having a root-canal which has taken about 6 visits each one of at least 50 mins I am very glad that it is at an end and it does look much better than having a big cap where my tooth was.
Am really getting to be in a sate of excitment about Limmud, see above posting now that i am getting texts from friends about meeting there and emails about whats on, how to get there and all the rest. I am not presenting this year so it is something of a year off; it will be nice just to relax and go to sessions with out being nervous about how one's session will go.

Hanukah

I am now more or less sorted for Hanukah, I know that I have left it very late as it is now fourth day but as we dont tend to go big on gifts for hanukah until the 7th or 8th nights so that its ok. I have also made a start of gifting for my Christian friends and i still have a bit of time for that espisally becasue i wont be seeing them untill the new year. It has become very cold now but as it is now mid-December it is not all that surprising that we should be having winter weather. I am also really beinging to looking forward to Limmud, (Limmud is an educational confrence on Jewish studies held around Christmass time, but it is like a year at uni, a festival, a rock concert and a joyful meeting with friends old and new all rolled into one.). I see people there who i dont see at any other time of the year but sence i have now been going for something like 19 years, not sure if my first limmud was either '90, 91 maybe as late as '92 but i dont think it was late.
Anyway I had better go and get on with some work on my thesis. On that topic I am making slow progress on my thesis but i keep telling myself that i am at the writting up stage so that is good.

Two blogs post in one day.

Two post in one day what has happened to me? I am sitting in the mainroom enjoying the Hanukah lights. Happy Hanukah.

Work life and other stuff

Hey I sorry that i have left it so long from my last post I have been very busy although i dont seem to have manged to do all that much, well thats not all that true I have made progress just not as much as i would have liked. I am still working hard on my thesis. It is still like wresseling with an oiled occatpus but i have the feeling, almost for the frist time sence after the first semster, that i am cofidant that i am actually going to finish. I have found some time to be sociable with friends which is a necessary for me otherwise i would go mad, i have a small circle of friends but i really need them. hope i am not driving them too mad with all my fussing about my thesis. I am now am really starting to look forward to Limmud which is fast apporaching. The only other thing is that i have had an extreem hair-cut gone very short. This is an attempt to conceal my baldness which at 31 is getting quite bad.

Lots of things

Well things have moved on and not moved on sinse my last posting, which i now see was ages and ages ago, for a long time it seemed that i was about to changed from Manchester to Liverpool but in the end and after the longest time of backing and frowing I have decided to stay...(I use the word decided in the broadest sense in the end i really had no opition it would have been most impractical to chnage my uni. This is espcially true at this late stage. I have now finished the practical elements of my research i still have a lot of work to do...and not that much time to do it less than a year now. I am also trying to make head way with my preparations for my year in Israel (which is the start of my rabbinic traning)...I am finding modern Hebrew really dificult much more so than i find Biblical Hebrew, but there you go. I am also starting work of the two talks that i am going to be giving this year.
I have just had my birthday, which was more fun than useal two of my best friends: Mandy and Daisy came up on the day on itself and we went to a local Chinese resterant they managed to sneek in a cake which was brought to the table at the end of the meal...I had now idea that that was about to happen...I got some really nice gifts...so in general a really nice day. I normaly get a little done on special days but this one was lots of fun.

some things change while others stay the same

Things have been much the same as normal with my working on my thesis; i have had time to keep up with friends though, Sam came up for a short vist and among other things we went bowling, i dont think i have been in about 15 years. Needless to say i was not very good...I have also been to synagogue a couple of times, i have been rather lax in that regared in the past few months. Aside from that i have been working on a couple of actual 'jewish studies' things rather than just my thesis and using my sisters wii while she is on hoilday.

long time no posting

Well I do seem to have been negelecting my blog somewhat, but then i have been very busy. I have now almost finnished conducting my interviews, I only have two left to do which when down this should bring me to a total or 31 interviews. Which is really a lot considering that my methods is more a qualative rather than quonative one. I have also been making progress with transcribing my interviews I have done twenty of them; although i am still massivly beind schedual on that front.

On the other main area I am progressing well with the stuff I need to do before i go to Israel next year to train as a rabbi.

return from Holidays

I have now returned from a holiday with mum and dad in wales, in a small seaside town called Newgale which is not all that far from St.David's I had a fun time although it was rather sad that my younger sister couldn't come as she was too busy. We were staying very near the sea just down the lane. The beach was beautiful after a high shingle bar there was a long strech of sand a beach with great waves. Often there were only a handful of people on the beach.
Mum got me a wet suit, the knind that stops at the elbows and the knees. This made sweeming really nice maybe too hot even. We had a couple of day trips to St Davids and to Haverodewest. But mainly we just stayed put. There are a lot of megalithic sites in the vicinity aswellas ironage settlements. All in all a very interesting place just a long way from where we live. (When we go to Wales we normally go to mid or north wales). On our return journy we stoped of for lunch in Machlleth. So a fun time but now its back to work.

not that much has happened

I have been having a quite time after my short hoilday in Ireland. I having been doing some work on my thesis, although as always i feel asthough I have mad enough progress. I am also waiting for somebooks that I have ordered to get here one is a gift and the other is the sayings of Rebbe M. Mendle of Kotz as part of my interest in Polish Hasidic thought brought about by the course that I went on. Well I have had a very peacefull weekend. And am looking forward the family hoilday which is coming along soon.

Happy times

I have tacken a brake from PhD and other work. I went on a breif hoilday over in Ireland in county Waterford. Staying with my friend Marianna her husband and her little girl. It was lovely to see her again amazingly its been 11 years! scene we last met. But we have been friends (pen pals) for years and years (almost 15!). I flow with a cheap airline from manchester on a very little plane. Her little girl is lovely very talkative and interested in everything.
On Saturday we went to the breach and then on a mountain top walk. On the next day we all went to see a megalith in county Cork. Although it was only a weekend it was really lovely and a great brake from PhD and other work. It was so nice to be able to bulid on the friendship.
Also I was luckly with the weather...it was aboslutly wonderful hot and sunny.

Fun times a little work

As always I have been working on my PhD although my progesses is slower than I would have hoped but i am still making progreess aspecially with the more practical elements of it. I am very well underway with the 'interviews' in fact i think i can say that i am on the home strecht i have now conducted 25 of them and i have another two booked in the near future; i can not see there being more than 32.
I have also been working on my Modern Hebrew, not all that well I have to say...it is no of the areas i am most worried about. But i still have plenty of time to make an improvement.
It has not all been work though...on my last trip to London I manged to get together with Daisy, Mandy and Terri (who I haven't seen in ages) we went to a very good and rather up-market pizza place in the west end. Daisy is very excited because she has just got her first teaching job as a primary RE teacher in a Roman Chaolic school. I have to say that i think that she will be an ace teacher.

Post-pasech and knee opp

Passover went vell well in the end it was really nice to see my two bigger sisters and my nice and nephew. Later on the friday night we went to dinner with some cousins up in Manchester, most i hadn't met before so that was good, and interesting at least for family members I wont going into any details becuase it would be very boring for anyone who isn't a family member. I am still plodding along with working on and writting my thesis, as i have a deadline now i can just about force myself to work on it. I cant say i am enjoying it yet, but at least i am not hating it.
My knee opp went well and today i have offically been discharged. which is great.

Blessing the Sun

In the end I did mange to get up early enough to bless the sun, the service is a little odd but the blessing is fairly standard. Then collected all the Hamezts from last night and burnt it in the garden after declaring it to be null and volid asn as the dust of the Earth. Now thinking about the 1st night sader.

Blessing the sun; kosher for passover wine

Today I have perpared the service sheets for the blessing on the sun, which marks the return of the sun the position it was meant to have been in at creation. This is part of 28 year cycle so I won't get another opportunity to do it again until I am almost sixty (G-d willing). The service is quiet simple really a numer of Paslms and other readings from the Bible (most are, rather unsurprisingly sun related-and others really quite odd) in addition there are two text from the Bavli and of course the core blessing 'who does the work of creation'. I am intending to wake people up on Wednesday at dawn in order to perform the mitzvah.

Apart from that i have botteled the homemade kosher wine-a very sticky job.

passover cleaning

My knee is heeling nicely. I no longer have any dressings on it and I can move with more easy. But it has kept me from doing as much passover cleaning as i should have done. Apart from that I have been busy with my thesis; still transcribing interviews. Oh Joy.

same old stuff

I have just been pushing on with my thesis now that I have a major deadline; at the moment this means I am busy transcribing interviews a process that i find rather, for rather read very, dificult and boring!

But it is good to have a deadline and it is nice to have a reason to work. On the Knee side it is getting better and I even though I am still in pain and find it very hard to sit at a desk with my legs down I am still making progress.

Knee surgery and rabbi school

In the end I was offered a place on the rabbinic training programme, which is great because i have wanted to be a rabbi almost all my life at least scence I was 10. At first there was a bit of a mix up over what year I had applied to enter but (i think) that that is sorted now...so I have just over a year to finish my thesis, which is very tough but i can do it. I even think that have such a hard dead-line will help me get on with it, which is a very good thing.

On Friday I had key-hole surgery on my knee plus a bi-opsy...the opp. itself wasn't too bad at all but the anaesthetic made me very ill indeed. I should have been able to go out of hospitial that evening but becasue I had been so ill i had to spend the night. I have knee exercise to do and i think it is heeling nicely but it is still quite painful.

But G-D willing I am going to be a rabbi (although not for years-don't ask how old I'll be ;-)

waiting

I am still waiting to hear from Leo Baeck college about the results of my interviews last week although I am not really expecting to hear anything until the 12th which is only two days away. Yesterday I went with mum and dad to hear the Megial read in our local shull some Lubervicters come down from Manchester to conduct the service for us. Today I couldn't go to synagogue.

Spritual issues and Judaism

I am still recovering from the whole interview process and am just getting backing to the flow of normal life. Today I went to the ARK (adults requiring knowlege) which was given by a friend it was on the topic of 'Judaism as a spritual path' which is an interesting topic in and off itself. But I am not sure I would reject the halakhah as he does. It was a very interesting session and has given me lots to think about along with the sessions on Polish Hasidic thought I have been going to.

Rabbinic school Interviews

So I have now had my interviews at rabbinic school and I don't really know what to make of them of the four proper interviews one went well, one badly or possible very badly, and two were just odd. Then there was my meeting with the Jungian anlaysis which which better than last time (well the whole thing couldn't have possible gone worse!)
So in general I am quite happy with it...whether I get an offer or not I think that I was able to be myself and show my best side which is really all I could have asked for isnt it? I also felt that I was able to bond with my fellow applicants much better than last time...altogther there were six of us including myself there was two man (plus me is three) and three girls. All in all I think that we were a rather impressive group.
There was also two additonal group interview/sessions a structered one and a more open one...Both went well in the sturctered one we had to make five minute presentations I think mine was the seconed best but all of us were impresive and it is very dificult to tell how one's own presentation went.
so all in all I am happier whatever happens.
But that said I was very very tired because the process lasted three days and didn't really do anything on shabbat except sleep after dinner, grace/zimmerot...and the next day (today just stayed put) did havdalah. And later will phone some people and do a bit of light reading.

Interviews

I now know my timetable for my interview(s) next week...and I must say it looks really rather heavy. I have four panel interviews where I will be interviewed by two people. Each of these last around an hour. In addition to these four interviews there are two group interviews where myself and the other candedates interact with eachother and with some of our interviewers...as part of one of these I have to perpare and give a presentation. Then we have some session where issues are presented to us. Oh and I almost forgot that I have to have a session with a analysist..so in short a very busy week indeed. (And even getting everything sorted for it in advance has proved to be a bit of a headache.

Quiet times

I have had a very quiet and peaceful shabbat...we didn't go to synagogue but rather stayed at home. I had known how tired I was and I don't really know why I should be so very tired I haven't done all that much. After havdalah I did some more work perparing for my up coming interviews...I think that I am going to as ready as I can be which is really all that I can ask of myself. I am still reading this amazing Anthopological study of Hasidic girls, well young women really, growing up in Crown Hights in New York. It is one of the most intersting books I have read in long time.

Rabbinic School Interviews

Yesterday I got the letter from the rabbinic school it was a fairly standard letter but my time table wasn't included. So I gave them a ring and it got sorted quiet quickly. They simple sent me a copy of my timetable by email...it doesn't look to bad main focused on the second and third days but that isn't a bad thing in and off itself.
So I know have a good idea of what is going to happen during my interviews in the rabbicinic school...I am still exploring any other options though. So sorting all the adminastive stuff for the interviews took up most of the day.

inbetween times

Well I have now made contact with the nice people who run the MA.ed that I am interested in the opening emails have been really quite friendly so I have re-written my CV and I have sent that in asking for an informal per-intereveiw type thing. I have also been doing some research on the web-(what did we do before research was so easy?)-and given the moduels on offer and the great teachers it is looking like a better and better option.

Not that I have given up on my other plans not by a long way I am in the midst of prepartions for my interviews which are coming up. As mentioned in earlier blogs. Three long days of different types of interviews but I am detrimed to make a better job of them than I did last time around. So it will be nice just to have a proper plan B.

But with all that going on I haven't had anytime really to make head way with my studies of the Mei Hashiloach. But I am starting to get a grip on the major outlines of his thought and Torah. I am also reading as a rather tangental part of my PhD research an anthopological study of the lives of Hasidic girls. (The topic is about as far away from my own as it is possible to be but within Jewish studies but some of the methods are much the same.)

It is a very interesting book and it is eye-opening how much the Tanya (a work of Lubavitch philosophy) is intergrated into their day-to-day life. It is called 'Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers' and is worth a read.

Forward planning

I am really not looking forward to March I don't think it is going to be a good one. Month that is rather then March that is. For one thing I have a three day interview in the first week of the month which is not really something that I am anticipanting with much joy. I also have a couple of hosptial oppontments again that is not something to fill one's soul with happiness is it. But then I have been waiting an age for this appontment so it is a good thing in a sort of way. There are a few other things that are set for march but I am not going to go into them here and now.

I am enjoying studying the Mei HaShiloach-but it is very radical. I can really see why it got its author into such trouble. But I still am nowhere near getting a handle on the ideas behind it.

Again looking forward I am giving somethought to doing an MA.ed (but it is at a very early stage).

Sci.fi

While I was in London I was reading "Neverwhere" by Neil Gailman...which is funny and scary and interesting all at the same time. Although reading it on the tube was a little nerve-racking. In the end i devoured the whole thing in a little over a day and I was rather sorry went it came to an end. I often feel that at the end of a book but it was espially true with Neverwhere I would really have liked to spend more time with Door, Richard, the Marquis. I also wanted to learn more about the whole world of London Below.
In a little when I am less busy I will go back and make myself re-read it but this time slowly picking up on more of the details. I really wish there were a sequal to Neverwhere not just because it would mean more time with them all but there are bits of London Below that were mentioned but not visited and I would like to 'see' them'. On a brighter note I have found a new author to pursue. (I will also, well maybe, get the DVD of the T.V sereis).

Torah, itlian food, and friendship

The shiur on Polish Hasidic thought was even better this week than it had been upto this point. This was the second week we spent on the Isbitz. And having looked at his life story and relationship with the Kotzker last week we were now studing just two sections from the Mei Hashiloach. The passage concernd with the spies and the one about Pinhas.
The later is probably the most radical Jewish teaching I have come across, and I can see why it was oftern omited or even torn out from the book. Anyway I went straight out and got a copy of the Mei Hashiloach (in translation.)
I had agreed to meet somefriends the next day so i had sometime to kill in london...I went to G.Green and got some surplies for shabbat. Then I had a look around the charity shopes...I found a copy of the No'am Elimeelch (Hebrew) for just a couple of pounds which was nice becaue i was about to get it anyway. I then ate lunch in a kosher Italian.
I still had sometime to kill so i stoped off at the British Libaury and had a look at their expo on human rights, before heading to the National Gallary to meet up with my friends. I still got there a bit on the earily side so I had a long look around the early paintins 1200-1500. I then met one of my friends who run though her talk on a picture 'an experiment with an air pump' on me-it was very good and even though it is one of my favourite pantings she had spotted things that i had always missed. We then met up with our other friends and went to get some dinner. Central London looked very bautiful under a light dusting of snow. (It was Itlain food again but then who can get to much Itlain food can you?)

Polish Hasidic thought

I am in the middle of a six-week course at LSJS (I know what is a nice ‘reform’ Jewish boy doing at LSJS). It is taught by Rabbi Belovski who is an amazing teacher and has the ability to make the complex and challenging ideas of the Polish Hasidic Rebbes accessible.
I don’t know why anybody hasn’t mentioned them before. Its not as if I am new to Jewish studies but I had not come across the thoughts and works of Rebbes like Rabbi Simham Bunim of Przysucha, and Rabbi Mordecai Yosef Leiner of Izbica. Although I had of course not only heard of but also studied, at least to some extent, the Kotzker.
I have always felt drawn to Hasidic ideas but the ideas that we are beginning to explore in this course are like a breath of fresh air. Really unlike anything I have come across before either within Judaism or outside of it. The focus on truth and authenticity is really challenging. I can see why it got these Rabbis into such trouble with the other leaders of Hasidic Judaism. It also provides an antidote to the false characterisation of Hasidic Judaism as being all about mysticism and tells of wonder working Rebbes. Not that I am going to abandon either my very minor readings in Jewish mysticism or the stories of the Hasidim.
But I am enjoying the course so much that I have ordered a couple of books by and about these very interesting religious thinkers.

In the end we decided that we would risk it and headed off into the snow we had packed a spad and some blankets just in case we got stuck but as it turned out the heavy snow was very local and although there was some light snow it wasn't settling. In the end we got to synagogue rather early (which is just a danger of living at a distance). The room where we had the Tu B'Shavet meal was lovely with one big table and the walls decorated with pictures of trees. I am not sure that any of the more mystical elements of the evening came though, but it was a fun event nevertheless.

snowy Tu B'shevat

Today (well from sunset onwards) is Tu B'Shevat and we should be about to head off to synagogue to do the Tu B'Shavat sader. This is based on the passover sader but it is customary to eat lots of frui, 12 different kinds (including the 7 fruits of Israel). Tu B'Shevat is full of kabbalistic meaning and is generaly a very postive event. It is sometimes said that Tu B'Shevat is the day when the trees wake up from their winter slumbers. Although given how snowny it is I don't think that they will be waking up. I also don't know if trying to travel to synagogue is a good idea as it is snowing quite hard. But that said the roads seem to be running quite well.