So last weekend I was in Berkeley. There were persimmons on trees, and a cute bunny in the garden next door going hoppity-hop!
Basically, I was there to be Inspirational. Jewish Milestones is a group that, hm, let's say, it recognises that quite a lot of people want to be Jewish off their own bats and don't want to join a shul so that the rabbi can be Jewish for them. Further, it recognises that sometimes people need a bit of help with that cos not everyone has a full set of Jewish Skillz. So it helps Being-Jews find Action-Jews and make Judaism, and to that end, it also has a stock of Jewish Stuff - which didn't include a Torah, which is a bit of a handicap when e.g. doing services.
Then it got a Torah, and that is rather a big deal, so there was a Hooray-We-Have-A-Torah event, and I got to play the role of Yay-Torahs-Are-Super.
So you can read about that in this nice newspaper article, here.
I also...
* got to spend time with the Jewish Milestones office people doing Here Is How To Look After Your Torah, which not enough people invest time in learning so it was really nice to be able to teach that properly for once.
* stayed with a super-nice family
* visited Netivot Shalom on Shabbat and gave over a form of this dvar torah, which judging by reaction people seemed to enjoy, and they had the. most. awesome. kiddush after, and the rabbi is a sweetheart
* got to see
darcydodo yay!
* went to Walnut Creek to do Hebrew school...I'd had the impression that the first class was going to be 20 kids; it turned out to be 40, which was a bit more of a challenge. I'm still learning how to engage and keep engaged a roomful of sixth-graders in Hebrew school.
* The second group was a girls' Rosh Chodesh group; they'd been meeting once a month for the past year, and I suppose I'm a role-model, or something, so they were meeting again with me there even though it wasn't Rosh Chodesh. Mostly I was really fascinated to learn from them - this is a Reform place, entirely egalitarian, so what do they get out of having a girls-only group? So the sorts of things I shared were mostly with that in mind. It was very interesting, picking up bits here and there, but mostly I was struck by what a jolly nice group they were.
* Then event, as per newspaper link above; I had a lot of fun talking about Ur New Torah, Let Me Show You It. And afterwards I did the thing where I sit and write people's Hebrew names, which I love doing because it's so easy (compared to some of the other stuff I do) and gives people so much pleasure.
Talking with the Milestones staff about what they do and the general Berkeley Jewish Scene, was both really nice and really interesting.
There's a story about Rabbi Meir, who in addition to being a sage, was also a scribe. He came to a little community one Purim, and they didn't have a Megillah, so he sat down and wrote them one so they could have a Megillah reading. Strikes me the Milestones peeps are like that.
Basically, I was there to be Inspirational. Jewish Milestones is a group that, hm, let's say, it recognises that quite a lot of people want to be Jewish off their own bats and don't want to join a shul so that the rabbi can be Jewish for them. Further, it recognises that sometimes people need a bit of help with that cos not everyone has a full set of Jewish Skillz. So it helps Being-Jews find Action-Jews and make Judaism, and to that end, it also has a stock of Jewish Stuff - which didn't include a Torah, which is a bit of a handicap when e.g. doing services.
Then it got a Torah, and that is rather a big deal, so there was a Hooray-We-Have-A-Torah event, and I got to play the role of Yay-Torahs-Are-Super.
So you can read about that in this nice newspaper article, here.
I also...
* got to spend time with the Jewish Milestones office people doing Here Is How To Look After Your Torah, which not enough people invest time in learning so it was really nice to be able to teach that properly for once.
* stayed with a super-nice family
* visited Netivot Shalom on Shabbat and gave over a form of this dvar torah, which judging by reaction people seemed to enjoy, and they had the. most. awesome. kiddush after, and the rabbi is a sweetheart
* got to see
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* went to Walnut Creek to do Hebrew school...I'd had the impression that the first class was going to be 20 kids; it turned out to be 40, which was a bit more of a challenge. I'm still learning how to engage and keep engaged a roomful of sixth-graders in Hebrew school.
* The second group was a girls' Rosh Chodesh group; they'd been meeting once a month for the past year, and I suppose I'm a role-model, or something, so they were meeting again with me there even though it wasn't Rosh Chodesh. Mostly I was really fascinated to learn from them - this is a Reform place, entirely egalitarian, so what do they get out of having a girls-only group? So the sorts of things I shared were mostly with that in mind. It was very interesting, picking up bits here and there, but mostly I was struck by what a jolly nice group they were.
* Then event, as per newspaper link above; I had a lot of fun talking about Ur New Torah, Let Me Show You It. And afterwards I did the thing where I sit and write people's Hebrew names, which I love doing because it's so easy (compared to some of the other stuff I do) and gives people so much pleasure.
Talking with the Milestones staff about what they do and the general Berkeley Jewish Scene, was both really nice and really interesting.
There's a story about Rabbi Meir, who in addition to being a sage, was also a scribe. He came to a little community one Purim, and they didn't have a Megillah, so he sat down and wrote them one so they could have a Megillah reading. Strikes me the Milestones peeps are like that.
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