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I met with my rabbi this morning. More about our rambling philosophical conversation later, but one outcome is that we're going to study talmud together. (This arose from my saying that in order to make informed decisions I need to develop the tools, and how do I do that?) I know it's traditional to start with Bava Metzia, but most of the issues I brought up in passing, to illustrate points, were about Shabbat, so we're going to start there.

I've never done one-on-one talmud study before; this will be neat. I've taken a couple classes with Rabbi Staitman over at Rodef (where I was by far the most engaged person in the class, to the point of feeling self-conscious about it), and I receive "classes" via the net that are not very interactive at all (lectures, really, though questions are taken). But this will be much better, and will let us ramble in whatever direction seems most appropriate.

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Stolen from chite:

Recommend me...
1. A movie
2. A book
3. A CD
4. An LJ user not on my friends list
5. A website
6. Something to do in the next two months

what I believe

In this entry, I talked with goljerp about the different movements in Judaism and what Reform believes. I'm moving the discussion here to talk about what I believe.

There is a famous story about a gentile who approached Rabbi Hillel and asked him to explain all of Torah while standing on one foot. (In other words, summarize!) Hillel said: "What is hateful to you, do not do to others. This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study." I'm not nearly as succinct as Hillel, so I'm going to sit while I write this. :-)

( This is long. )