(no subject)

Yesterday I was working on a Torah for Congregation Emanu-El, the ancient and giant Reform shul in Manhattan.

This time of year is an interesting one. Shuls want their Torahs in order for the upcoming festival season, so any Torahs still in the works have to get finished - but also, shuls get back from their summer break, become racked with guilt that some of their Torahs aren't in good order, and beg for rush fixing jobs. Any one rush job doesn't take up so much time, but when you have dozens of them, you end up working overtime - and how! (Rabbis: don't leave it until after the summer break. Really. It's so much easier for us if you get the Torahs in well in advance.) So what with working on my Torah, doing a couple of mezuzah jobs, and filling in every spare moment with repairs for the festivals, I'm kinda busy.

(no subject)

You need a certain calmness of mind to write good Torah.

Abusive phone calls are not conducive to states of calm.

Abusive phone calls, in fact, make me very angry. I do not respond to abusive people; I say that I'm not interested in having that kind of conversation and then I hang up, because there's no point my sinking to their level by responding in kind and there's certainly no point my listening to it. But after I hang up I'm all seething and ruffled. I don't like having people spew petty venom at me, in all kinds of unreasonable ad hominem attacks.

I know it's unreasonable, I know they're probably venting some kind of weird baggage that has nothing to do with me, I know I shouldn't let them bother me - but there you are. Words have power. The power of malice and the power of Torah don't mix so well.

Tea.

(no subject)

Dang, my student S is amazing.

Music doesn't come easily to her. But she learned a Torah portion...and another Torah portion...and now she's been asked to read on Yom Kippur, which means learning a whole new tune, but she's determined...AND, and, she's doing this simultaneously with chemotherapy. Chemo UTTERLY wipes one out, but she's still learning this Torah portion.

Amazing. What a terrific person.