meeting with my rabbi

[cellio]

I studied with my rabbi today. When I got there he said that if it's ok with me he wants to study a different section of talmud than where we are right now. Fine with me, I said. After we laid the foundation, he raised an issue of practical application. We've done that before, but this time we argued about it more. It's a real unsettled issue in our community, he said, and he had me arguing both sides -- "ok, then if you say X, the logical response to that would be Y, and the logical response to that would be Z, and...". I don't think I came up with anything he hadn't already come up with, but he was definitely working me harder than usual, and I appreciate it.

He also asked me to do a shiva minyan tonight, and asked if I'd like to chant torah for the high holy days. (Woot!)

I feel like I've moved up to a new level. Nifty! It's not that any one of those would have been all that unusual on its own (well, maybe high-holy-day torah reading...), but the combination of them all in one 45-minute meeting was novel.

(Yes, he agreed that learning high-holy-day trope in this timeframe would be impractical, and I should use the trope I already know.)

Comments

[cellio]

Interesting dream. Did I seem to give credible answers?

One of the questions I asked my mentors when I was starting down this path is "why me, why now?". (Ok, two questions.) The answer I came to accept is that the path was always there but I didn't always see it; I had to be receptive to the idea before anything could happen. So perhaps you're now, for whatever reason, receptive to the idea, which you may or may not do anything about.

I'll be happy to talk with you if you like. Feel free to send me email. I won't push.