(no subject)

[cellio]

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.

Comments

[cellio]

And I know what you mean about being the most engaged person in the class, to the point of feeling self-conscious about it...wierd feeling, huh?

Sure is! And I really didn't expect it, especially the first time it happened. I mean, here I was, a non-Jew who (at that time) had not even been to services, but was just in absorb-everything-I-can mode to figure out if this was the right path for me, and the first class I was the one asking the questions. Not aggressively, mind, and I sat on a lot, but I think I knew enough to ask good questions (not FAQs), and the rabbi's reaction seemed to confirm that. But I was almost certainly the least-educated person in the room, and I was seeing connections that either no one else was seeing or no one else was speaking up about. Weird! Yeah, I like to think I'm of above-average intelligence, but still... this was a group of adults voluntarily taking a talmud class, so they were probably all pretty bright, too. But not engaged.