weekend so far

Thursday night David gave me a tape of the Torah reading I'm going to do in a few months. It doesn't look/sound too hard, though I still want to learn rather than derive the trope interpretation. I had asked him to chant it twice, once using the names of the tropes and then once with the actual words, but he didn't do the former. (That seems to be a standard teaching method.) So I'll have to hit him up for that next time I see him.

At the end of the tape he recorded his phone number and email address (in case I had questions), and then ended with the word "b'has'lecha". I infer from both ccontext and the fact that I recognize "lecha" that this means something vaguely like "take care", but it's probably going to bug me until I find out for sure. Gotta remember to ask Dani. (Unless one of my Hebrew-enabled friends speaks up first.)

( Shabbat report )

some topics are off-limits

I have a friend from high school with whom I get together from time to time. Lori and I have grown apart, but she still wants to keep this up so I go along. About 10 years ago we both worked downtown and did lunch weekly; now we get together once or twice a year. Lori used to be an evangelical Christian, to the point where I once told her that either she would stop trying to convert me or I would stop being willing to spend time with her (this was during the weekly-lunch days), and she took the hint. She's mellowed a lot since then.

She got married several years ago to Daniel, so since then the visits have included him -- and, now that I'm married, also Dani. She and Daniel are both committed Christians (specific denomination unknown to me -- they just say "Christian", and I haven't pressed it). Daniel seems like a nice person, though we don't know each other that well.

Last night we had them out for dinner, and Daniel and I got into an annoying argument about religion. (He started it.) I thought we were having one of those intellectual-style arguments where you're looking at facts and logic, but it became apparent that he was having an argument about faith and belief, and then wouldn't take hints that this was Not A Good Idea. Once I figured out what was going on I tried to change the subject and eventually just stopped responding, but even that did not get through to him. Eventually Lori told him to stop and Dani was able to redirect the conversation. I felt like a bad host, though I can't help feeling that I also had a bad guest. (I should clarify that I like Daniel, at the basic social level that we've achieved thus far. I was kind of surprised by this.)

( the rest of the story )