Quotes from the past couple of days

As some of you know, one of my hobbies is collecting quotes of my friends. On my last year´s blog I had a permanent quote chapter which I kept updating. On this blog, I will have to past the quotes as they come. These are some of the ones of the past couple of days:

-This is why I prefer to work with dead artists over the living ones. The dead simply make much less trouble. (Jana)
-He is such a horrible person! Unfortunately, he is a great chazzan (synagogue prayer leader) too. This is just not fair. If somebody is so horrible, he should be horrible completely. (Yael)
-It always horrifies me to hear that somebody calls themselves a Christian activist. This goes against the logic of the religion. If you ask me, I am a Christian passivist. (Tomáš V.)
- I went to Germany for the Football World Cup. The first match I saw was Ghana v Czech Republic! It was a great match. Actually, I was intending to
cheer for your countrymen, but one of them stole my
sunglasses! (Daniel K.)
- You insist on marrying a Jew so hard that I am sure that in the end you will end up with a half-black Chinese Muslim.(Tomas, my brother)
- Please note that any unattended object or luggage will be systematically destroyed. (announcement at Paris Orly airport - the French speak adorable English)
-Well, I am not impressed by the book. But you are talking to somebody, who rarely reads anything written after the 5th century. (Rabbi Spectre)

About the book

Sorry to bother you with the book again, but I thought that once I made such a PR for it when I was on page 56, I should also tell you what I think after reaching the end of the novel. I finished the book on Saturday afternoon and I am afraid my final judgment won’t be very flattering. Naively, I thought I would read a novel based on historic and responsa research that would offer me a peak into the world of 11th century French Jewish women. In my humble opininon, Maggie Anton hoped to create a character of a 12-16 year-old daughter of a famous sage, who shares her time between wine making, being married to an 18-year-old scholar and studying Talmud. In reality, however, the Jocheved (Rashi’s eldest daughter) Anton created far too much resembles a 50-year-old emancipated American Jewish female of the beginning of the 21st century – in what she argues, what texts she studies and how she experiences her female role in the men dominated world. In addition, the author painfully erred in making Rashi the inventor of Champain (a beverage that appeared only 700 years after his death), she presents Christianity of that time in an unnecessarily simplistic way and in my opinion, she puts unnecessary emphasis on the ups and downs of Jocheved and Meir’s marital sexual life. In addition, the author fails to present the sources on which she bases her assumptions about Jocheved’s life, which undermines the author’s efforts greatly. But not to be only critical, the book presents very well researched picture of the customs (both religious, family and folk) of that time and place as well as a vivid portrayal of the demonology and folk beliefs in evil and good spirits of the time. Also, I must admit that after a year in a yeshiva, I quite enjoyed reading such a vivid love story. So my final judgment is – the book is an enjoyable holiday read, but by no means a serious historical study of the life of Rashi´s daughters. In any event, it was pleasant to read it in Troyes and I surely see the town differently thanks to the novel. I should be going back home in two days. I will write more about my Troyes venture when I, b´´eh get to Prague. (The picture shows one of the Troyes streets.)

From Troyes

Very quick hello from Troyes, France. I came here two days ago to take part at a ten-day-long Paideia Summer Rashi Seminar. This will be a very quick message - my access to Internet is not really impressive and I am not sure I will have a chance to write more to you before I come back home to Prague next week. The seminar is just starting and it is too early to say anything about it for the moment. So for the meantime, let me just say a couple of words about Troyes as such. It is a small town in the Champagne county (hence the name of the beverage which is called after this reagon), 90 minutes of train ride east of Paris. Even though the town does not really make a big fuss about it (to my great surprise,) this is the birth town of Rashi, a place where he had his vinery and produced wine and a place where he worked and taught and established a yeshiva after years of study of Worms. I wish I could say it is exciting to be in the place where all the famous Rashi´s commentaries were written and that it is fascinating to breath the same air Rashi did, but I am afraid I cannot say any of this. It is a beautiful renaissance town, it looks very old, but it is deffinitely a far cry from the 11th century town of Rashi´s time. However, I tryed to make up for this by bringing a Maggie Anton novel „Rashi´s daughters,“ which talks about the fate of Rashi´s three daughters, whom their father, not having any sons, started to teach Talmud. I was rather skeptical before I started to read it, but the book is based on a serious historic research and so far, I have been enjoying it greatly (I am on page 56.)

New mezuzoth in my flat

Today, I affixed mezuzoth on the doorposts of my flat together with my parents, brother and Alesh. It feels wonderful.

Ve-kiemanu la-zman ha-zeh (And we've reached the time)

Today in the morning, I signed my contract with the Lauder school in Prague. On 1st August, I shall start to work there as a full-time teacher of Jewish Education and English. In the past two weeks, I spent a lot of time in the school working on the new conception of Jewish education with my new boss Shmil, who is the deputy vice principal responsible for the Jewish element in the curriculum of the school. (The school is undergoing a big transformation and Judaism will be taught in a completely new way from September on.) Last week, I even taught a short 2-hour class to the teachers of grades 1 to 5. I am honestly excited about getting the job. It is a great opportunity to combine both of my degrees (education and Jewish studies) and it is a good way to make sure I shall not degenarate and I will continue to study Judaism seriously. Also I appreciate the chance to have a chance to shape the next generation of Jews in this town, which makes me feel I can help to create a community I would want my children (בע''ה) to grow up in (what a chutzpah of me to say that). I have always enjoyed teaching and I am excited about having found a job where I can teach creatively in an environment, which is supportive of modern ways of teaching, a place where I can teach Judaism and also, naturally, a place where I can help to build the conception of how and what will be taught brom the scratch. Last but not least I am looking forward to working together with Shmil – he is admirably committed and passionate about his job and obviously sees it as a mission rather than vocation and it is naturally very important to have a boss like that. Fortunately, we seem to share the same ideas and vision on what and how should be taught in the school, which makes me believe that we will be able to cooperate effectively and with ease. Moreover, I appreciate he takes me seriously and treats me as an equal partner despite the fact he has a much richer experience in Jewish education than I do. In the heat and excitement of today´s day, I am very hopeful looking into the future, I put down ideas for next year´s teaching, I am gathering materials and plan how to get ready for the new school year in time and as effectively as possible. Hopefully, I will keep my enthusiasm at least also on 5^th September (the school year starts on the 4^th :o)

All being well, I will have 1 and a half job next year. This Shabbat, I officially started my part-time job for Masorti/ Marom in the Czech Republic. Already while in Israel, I agreed to work for the community as a coordinator. In real life, it means that I try to make the life of our rabbi a bit easier by taking care of some of the administrative part to running of the community, I communicate with other organizations, coordinate some of the services, take care of foreign visits, shlep sidurim from one place to another etc. I see this job also as very important. So far, the Masorti community in this country has not had any paid employee except for the rabbi, who had to take care of everything from leading High holiday services through hiring venues for the community activities to buying wine and cakes for kiddush. The community has always heavily depended on the work of volunteers (all of whom have done an incredibly devoted job, kol ha-kavod), which was not really ideal - the community, despite being as small as it is, simply needs somebody, who would help it administratively and who would be paid to be able to devote time to the job. After spending a year in the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, I started to feel strong commitment to egalitarian and modern Judaism. I think Prague deserves to have a community that cherishes these values and I feel that if I can help to maintain and develop it, I have an obligation to do it. In the past 3 weeks I have had several meetings in connection to my new work, have worked closely with our rabbi, Ron Hoffberg, I have lead one Kabbalat Shabbat service and have given one Dvar Torah, helped to host Av Beit Din of the European Masorti Beit Din, r. Chaim Weiner during his visit in Prague, have had few fights and …simply the usual stuff.

So…to cut the long story short – I have been very busy in the last couple of days, which is great. After spending so much time studying and taking in, it feels great to haveso much to do, to have a diary full of meetings, to have obligations, to organize and create. The fact that after today I even have a full time job, which will give all my efforts some stable framework, gives me an intensive reassuring feeling. I feel great, excited, grateful, it seems to me these days are pregnant with future possibilities.

In addition, my flat starts to look like a real place for living – I have a bed, a fridge, after today I have even a washing machine, iron and ironing board, a table in my study and a garden table on my terrace, wireless internet and 3 brand new plants.

And! And I got a brand new, smashing haircut – my longest hair is about 1,5 cm (half an inch) now.

Sorry for having written such an uncritically optimistic post, I am sure I will have a chance to make up for it once either of the jobs starts to bug me :o)