cellio | Entries tagged with shalom hartman

Air Canada sold me a ticket that couldn't possibly work, treated me badly, and cost me two days, and then they refused to compensate me (there's way more there that I haven't published, ending with them telling me to get lost). So I filed a complaint with First National Bank of Omaha, the issuer of my VISA card, in late July.

The first-tier customer-support rep who took my call collected very basic information about my complaint and told me that a representative would call. Instead I received a letter a couple weeks later, in mid-August, saying they had investigated my claim but, since Air Canada had transported me, albeit badly, there was nothing they could do. I called the person who signed the letter, and our conversation went roughly like this (I'm summarizing slightly):

Me: This is not how your representative said this would go. I'm very disappointed that my case was closed without even talking with me. By the way, I'm a customer of 19 years who's only once before ever asked you for anything.

Her: They did transport you. If you hadn't used the rest of the ticket we could have helped you. You have to take it up with them.

Me: When the problem arose I was stranded in another city. Three times. They had me over a barrel, don't you think? Also, they sold me a ticket that could not possibly work; isn't that at the least misfeasance if not fraud?

Her: I can talk to their bank (instead of the merchant) and try to work something out. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't -- it's basically a professional courtesy. What do you think is fair compensation? A full refund probably isn't going to happen.

Me: They did transport me, as you said, but they messed up my vacation and cost me extra money besides. I think a refund of half the ticket price is fair.

Her: I'll see what I can do. It may take a month.

Today I received a letter saying they have credited me for half the ticket price. The letter says "this is an attempt" and that if the merchant disputes it they will have to charge me again. So now we wait. Let's hope that this bank-to-bank negotiation is usually settled at that level without further interference.

I've finally distilled my pictures from Israel into a single album (68 photos). Lots of parks and sculptures, and a bunch in and around the Old City.

Album (Picasa)

I still owe more posts about the trip, including the program at Shalom Hartman, davening at Shira Chadasha, and miscellaneous other things. Oh, and for the curious, my complaint against Air Canada is currently at VISA. Next up on that front will be Christopher Elliott (thanks for the tips).

I've been learning a lot and it's going to take a while to write it all up -- certainly not before I get home. So in the meantime, some shorter bits:

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When I saw an entry on the schedule called "faith after the Holocaust" I sort of sighed a little. People have been asking "why?" for 70 years and we're no closer to an answer in all that time. And while of course I understand that it is profoundly important, my lack of personal connection to it (my family was never at risk) makes it hard.

This session was excellent. Rachel Korazim, who seems to be well-known (I'd never heard of her) reviewed with us some literature and poetry, unpacking for us all the nuances that you would not know if you had not been in Israel soon after. Possibly some of this stuff is in Dani's consciousness that way (Dani's family was in Canada during the Shoah but his parents moved to Israel in the 50s for a time); I'll have to ask him.

Rachel Korazim was there too (she's in her mid-60s and remembers), so she was able to provide a lens on the time. One story that prompted a lot of this was the beginning of a book (I think book and not story) called See Under: Love by David Grossman. Just a taste: it starts: "It was like this. A few months after Grandma Henny was buried in her grave, Momik got a new grandfather." Unpacking this: "it was like this" -- do stories tend to start that way? It's a Yiddish-ism. "Buried in her grave"? Why not just "buried" or "died"? The point is that she got a grave, a grave that her family can visit and that actually contains her body, which is intact. "Got a new grandfather"? How do you usually get a new grandfather today? Through remarriage. Is that plausible here? What it really refers to (as the story later describes) is reunification; every afternoon at a fixed time there was a radio broadcast listing names of people looking for other people, and the kids -- who, unlike their parents, were learning Hebrew -- had to listen to this broadcast and tell their parents if any family members were mentioned. She went on, giving us a vivid picture of what it was like to live in Israel then. Fascinating and emotional.

Other texts included: "Written in Pencil in the Sealed Car" by Dan Pagis (allusions to Kayin and Hevel), "Yitzchak" by Amir Gilboa (the binding of Yitzchak), and "The Camp Inmate's Shirt" by Avnir Trainin (allusions to Yosef's special coat, which was striped according to the rabbis, not necessarily "of many colors" like in the musical). These are all poems. There was also another story excerpt.

Rabbi Donniel Hartman gave a fascinating talk called "Faith and Reason". This is not a full description of that talk (too much). It's not really even a complete summary, as I'm skipping past a bunch of stage-setting. This is more of a partial summary plus reaction all rolled into one. (I'll try to be clear when he's talking and when I am.)

R. Hartman argues that in a world in which we have many choices, where we can choose to associate with "people like us" (whatever that means), we are free to choose how to respond to religion. In a previous talk he suggested that many choose atheism, usually negative atheism (I don't know that God exists) or practical atheism (whether God exists doesn't affect what I do) rather than positive atheism (I know that God doesn't exist). In this talk he suggested that a barrier to faith is the baggage you think you'll have to accept. Many, he thinks, make assumptions about that baggage -- the things we will have to believe or at least accept -- based on pediatric perceptions of religion. He asks: If I choose the presumption of faith do I have to leave my brain at the door?

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Wednesday's talks: Donniel Hartman "Do I have to believe in God to be a good Jew?" was very interesting and thought-provoking; more to come. And Yitz Greenberg "The nature of faith in an age of absolute divine hiddenness and total human responsibility" was a little hard to follow; I'll see what I can distill later maybe.

Thursday morning: "Faith and reason", Donniel Hartman and then chevruta study. He talked a lot about the Rambam (with a little Ramban in the later study). I plan to write more about this, but some tidbits: reasoon is not the same thing as rationality, and (per Rambam) if religion seems incompatible with rationality you don't understand Torah (not "science is wrong").

The program so far is suitably intellectual for me (perhaps even a bit too much). There will be other experiences too, so it'll be a nice blend.

I just registered for the Shalom Hartman Institute summer program in Jerusalem (after confirming a sane refund policy in case the region goes pear-shaped in the meantime). My rabbi recommended this program a few years ago and I've been eying it every year, and this year the stars aligned (dates, interesting topic, timely responses to email queries). It sounds like a great experience and I'm excited to finally be going.

I'm also kind of nervous -- not about the program, and not about the Iran thing (I can always bail), but rather about being a solo international traveler. This will only be my second time off the continent and the first time I went with a tour group so I didn't have to personally arrange anything, and somebody was steering us in useful directions. Those of you who've done this "foreign travel" thing, this is your enthusiatic invitation to tell me anything you think I ought to know, no matter how big or small.

Whee! Eeek!

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This Shabbat I finally got a chance to talk with the congregant who went to the summer program at the Shalom Hartman Institute this year. I had considered going, but it was hard to get useful information about the program in advance, and it was a lot of money to spend on a shot in the dark. (It would have cost 3-4 times what I spent to go to NHC.) My rabbi speaks highly of SHI in general (he's involved in a different program there), but didn't know details of this specific program. So I've been eagerly awaiting a report from the field.

She had a wonderful time, and from her description of the program I think I would too. The group was fairly small (~50 people?) and broken up into groups for study (so it's not all lecture-hall style). It sounds like the groups were fixed, which can be good and bad; she said there were some groups that came there together and they stuck with each other, reducing mingling opportunities for everyone else, but that it didn't get in her way. She has promised to let me look at the class materials she brought back; it sounded like a good, text-heavy program, neither overwhelmingly advanced nor "101" stuff that's too basic for me. She said the days were fairly full, which I consider an advantage.

Last time I posted about this I got a comment from someone at SHI (who, unfortunately, didn't leave contact info). I assume I showed up in web-site referrer logs. Anyway, if you're out there and see this, I'd like to talk with you about information you could put on your web site that would help people who are looking for you. (Psst. Could you indicate dates for next year's program?)

If I have any readers with experience with this program (or SHI in general), I'd love to know about it!

LJ tags are spiffy but not as fully-featured as I'd like, and I probably haven't figured out the best way to use them yet. So this entry is something of a cross-reference; if you got here via one of the tags on this entry you might also be interested in some of the others. I'll try to update this entry over time, and eventually will create similar entries for other tag families.

Judaism: education is a catch-all bucket. Sometimes things start here and then spin off into their own tags.

Sh'liach K'hilah (LJ swallows the first apostrophe for some reason) is (was) the Reform movement's para-rabbinic program. I attended in 2004 and 2005.

Open Beit Midrash (obm) at Hebrew College. I attended in 2007. I also have a more-general Hebrew College tag that includes entries about a program called Ta Sh'ma that I attended in 2006. One of these days I might give those their own tag.

Melton = Florence Melton Program, an international two-year program of which I completed the first year in 2006-2007. (My class session got cancelled the following year. Someday I will probably return, if the scheduling works.)

Study with my rabbi is for entries related to my one-on-one study. Midrash overlaps that, covering my midrash study in particular.

NHC is a tag for the chavurah program I attended in August 2008.

Kallah is a tag for the ALEPH kallah that I'm attending in 2009.

Shalom Hartman is a tag for the Shalom Hartman Institute, a program I considered in 2008 and 2009. I'll get there some year, I expect...

After dithering for a while, I've decided not to go to the program at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem this year. It was going to be expensive before the dollar tanked (let alone now), and I haven't been able to find out a lot about it, and I figure I can wait for a review from the fellow congregant who's going and re-evaluate for next year.

I am pretty sure I am going to National Havurah Committee's summer institute, unless all the classes I'm interested in have filled up since the list went live a couple months ago. (I've sent email to inquire.) This is the week after Pennsic, which is a little awkward, but I should be able to make it work. (I want some down-time, but I'll come home from Pennsic on Friday and not need to leave for this until Monday morning, probably.) Do I know anyone else who is going this year? I know magid has gone in the past.

(By the way, can anyone from the area tell me what NH temperature and humidity tend to be like in mid-August? This informartion seems remarkably hard to gain via Google.)

I have also heard some really good things about a short program called Limmud. When I first heard of this what I found was a weekend(-ish) program in the UK, which seemed rather a bit of trouble for something so short. (At the time I didn't have a passport. I do now, so it would just be about time and airfare.) But someone on a mailing list recently mentioned the New York instantiation. This program is for a long weekend in the winter. They don't have any details posted yet, but I'll check back later. (I wonder what the least-bad way is for getting to the Catskills in January. Maybe some other congregants will be interested and we could drive; flying is not clearly a win.)

My rabbi recommended the Lay Leadership Summer Study Retreat, which I am strongly considering going to this year. From what I've read so far, it sounds like an excellent learning opportunity. I learned this Shabbat that a fellow congregant is definitely going, which would reduce some of my "travelling alone in a far-away place" jitters (it's in Jerusalem). It's kind of pricy; I can afford it but am asking myself cost-benefit questions. I'd be away for about 10 or 11 days (late June/early July). Those 10 or 11 days span a period when Dani would be away anyway (at a gaming con), which seems like a win in the spousal-away-time department. (It's a given that he's never going to accompany me on one of these trips.) Note to self: stay here.

It's either that or the National Havurah Committee summer session, recommended by

magid (who attended last year). This, too, sounds like a good program -- it's got stuff I'm definitely not into (granola), but enough serious study to keep me busy. It's probably smaller and a little more intimate than the Hartman program, and I'd know one person there (assuming

magid goes again). It's the week immediately after Pennsic -- dodging is good but back-to-back vacations might be bad.

This year's URJ Kallah is a no-go. I kind of figured it would be with the title "Israel at 60", but it was possible the program would surprise me. It's now been published; it didn't. So, some other year, maybe. (Israel is of course an important component of Jewish study, but I'm looking for something with more traditional text and less modern history/zionism, thanks.)

I do mean to return to the Open Beit Midrash at Hebrew College, but not this year.

Someday I will be able to take the 3+ weeks needed to go to the Conservative Yeshiva's summer program in Jerusalem, but not this year and probably not next. I'm pencilling it in for 2010. (Similarly, Drisha and Pardes have programs that are too long for me right now.)

Monica

Air Canada fails, but First National VISA comes through

Israel pictures

shorter bits

faith and the Shoah

faith and reason

quick notes

Shalom Hartman this summer

random bits

Shalom Hartman next year?

tag crossroads: jewish education

summer learning

options for Jewish learning this year

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