Sunday, August 12, 2012

Anxiety & Excitement About the Coming Year

My rabbi (hopefully) finally just returned from sabbatical. He was at shul yesterday and said to call him this week to set up a meeting before the conversion class starts. I'm super excited. And I'm super nervous. This rabbi is supposedly one of the best in town and I don't want to mess anything up with him. I really want to work with him because I've heard amazing things about his teaching and patience.


Since I tend to forget everything when I am nervous and talking, I decided I should write something down for him. I'm a pretty good writer and that way I can make sure to articulate all the really important things I think he should know. I could convince him that I will be a righteous convert in writing. Except, when I actually sat down to write, too much came out and now he'll probably never read it. Eighteen pages is too long for him; this I am sure. But I won't lie, I love that it so neatly came out to chai pages. I pulled some information from this blog, but it is mostly new. I may post the paper in segments in the future.

I also made up a Jewish resume of sorts. I want him to know right where I am in my learning, my experiences, and observance. This was sort of my intuition as a future teacher. It can take weeks to figure out what a student actually knows. I figured I would help him along and save us both time.

Every time I go to shul the cantors and rabbis ask whatever friend I've schlepped in for the week and me about coming to High Holiday services. They seem to love opening up to college students who can't get home. There is no charge, obviously, but students don't even have to call ahead to get a ticket. You can just show up. I am really excited to spend the High Holy Days at an actual synagogue. Don't get me wrong, I love that Hillel does services for free for students. But they are incomplete and often rushed. They only do three services on Yom Kippur so you end up sitting at home, alone, all afternoon thinking about how hungry you are.

All in all, I have an exciting year coming up and I'm ready to get started.

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