Shabbat

Friday night I had not one but two cases of "guess who I ran into at services".

First was a former co-worker (and boss), her husband, and their kids. They belong to a different congregation, but they randomly decided to check us out. I haven't seen them in a while, so it was neat to be able to talk with them. I hope we see more of them. (And I'm past due to have lunch with her.)

While I was talking with them someone who looked vaguely familiar came up to me and said "hi Monica". Think think think... who is this? She said her first name. Think think think... aha! She moved away from Pittsburgh 15 years ago and I haven't seen her since; she just happened to be back for a family simcha. (She also confessed that she wasn't sure who I was until she heard someone use my name, and that confirmed her suspicion that she knew me.) I got a card from her with an email address, so we'll at least have the ability to not let this go another 15 years.

We had a visiting scholar this Shabbat, Joel Lurie Grishaver, a big name (I gather) in Jewish education. He's an author, founder of a publishing company, and organizer of CAJE, a big annual conference focusing on Jewish education. Most of his books seem to be aimed as kids and parents, but he did not make the mistake many do of speaking only to them. He spoke Friday night and gave a class Shabbat afternoon.

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