A Hodgepodge

[debka_notion]

1. As a convention, I adopted (on and off) the practice of writing "b"h" (aka b'ezrat hashem- with the help of G-d) on many of my papers at some point, stopped at a later point, and started again at some point this year: it seemed like a good reminder of G-d's involvement in the world and in my life. More recently, as in this week, I've been wondering though, what it really means. It seems almost presumptuous, even for someone with panentheist tendencies.

2. I think I must be fighting off a cold, I've been awfully tired of late.

3. This is the second week in a row where Tuesday has started to feel a bit like Wednesday by eveningtime for some reason.

4. I got to help with and observe my lead educator's class yesterday, and it was a really good experience. I'll be subbing for her next week, so she wants to get me all set for that. I'm introducing the next prayer they're working on tomorrow so that she can give me some tips.

5. Speaking of such, the head of the religious school emailed me to see if I wanted to pick up a job as an aide for the kindergarten for 2 hours on Thursdays. It would be a great chance to get to work with littler kids, but I'm not sure it's wise in terms of having time to do work and work on my thesis. And I have class until 3, so getting there on time would not precisely be easy, and possibly not doable. I'd probably have to learn the highway route for the way there, which would be OK but a hassle. I really ought ot turn it down, but there's this part of me that wants to do it. I'll probably say no. But...

6. I need to start thinking about what I'm doing with February break. The first weekend there are about a gizillion things going on: Tamaron (Israeli Dance Workshop, widely reputed to be crowded and worthless, but which I've never been to, and I actually have the time off...), Jews in the Woods (another event I've heard a lot about, much of it good), a Yiddish day in NYC that sounds really quite cool that my teacher has been pushing us to attend if we can, and something else- I'm forgetting what now.

Comments

[belu.livejournal.com]

I can't quite put my finger on why, but (1) seems like a really odd thing to do. I should give it more thought.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Misreading a word in (1), I found myself wondering what a parentheist worships. (Punctuation?)

[tovaks.livejournal.com]

What's the topic of your thesis?

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Women making Shabbat dinner without communal suppoort- i.e. without a community around where making Shabbat dinner (either at all or the way that they're doing it) is normative behavior.

[doodah.livejournal.com]

that sounds really wonderful; do you think i might be able to read it at some point?

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Of course, once it actually gets written in some form. Remind me if I forget.

[chinchillama.livejournal.com]

Really? That's really cool, I think I thought it was something else entirely.

I now kind of know what that's all about, being over here it is very isolated... I do it for me and Adam because it's important to us, but there is no community where we live, so it's a much different motivation than it was when were were at deis cooking for dozens of people.

Anyway, I too want to read it sometime! (I'll get it from the library if I have to, but maybe you'll just send me a copy)

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Heck, you want to be interviewed? You fit my profile something very close to perfectly.

But regardless, I'd be happy to send you a copy once I get it written and such.

What did you think it was about?

[chinchillama.livejournal.com]

if you want/need to interview me, I'd be happy to help. :)
I'm not sure what I thought it was, perhaps I just never refined it down, I knew it was women and Judaism and something... but that could be lots of things, silly me.

feel free to email me a survey question thing or we can work out phone time, I dont know what the rates are from deis, but I know our rates from here are VERY good.

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

#1 is like mentioning G*d among the people you'd "like to thank" in the liner notes for an album, or in your Oscar acceptance speech, or wherever, and its implications depend on how other people will read it. Likely interpretations include:

1. With the help of available resources in the empirical universe (including other people), none of which would be here without G*d.


2. Everyone needs, and gets, G*d's help to accomplish anything, and I'm no exception.


3. Everyone needs, and gets, G*d's help sometimes, and this time I particularly needed it.


4. Everyone needs G*d's help to accomplish anything, but only special people like me actually get it, everyone else is screwed.


5. I'm so pathetic, I needed G*d's help to get through this, other people somehow seem to manage without.

As you can see, a wide variety of theologies and levels of humility/arrogance can be read into such a statement. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you're going for sense 1 or 2 (they do go together well), which seems like a fine sentiment — universal, neither arrogant like 4 nor self-deprecating like 5. Otoh, when considering public statements of faith, it's not compromising your values to care that the values people read into your words are the same ones that you write into them.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a pretty good explication of the concept- and yes, 1 and 2 are about the way I'd like to think of it, especially 2, with occasional paranoid tendencies towards 3. 4 is pretty much a contradiction of my theology, and 5 confuses me a little. A lot of it goes on my class notes, which few other people really encounter, or my homework, which my teachers see but no one else. So it's more of a personal reminder than anything else. I find it really quite odd when people put B"H at the top of their emails, say.

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

Also, the thing you're forgetting that weekend in February might be Boskone, a conveniently located science-fiction convention. Or not.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

I think so- I've never done the convention thing, but it has me a little curious, so... I don't know, maybe I ought to look into rates for that along with the other stuff. But I really should start contemplating...

February break

[(Anonymous)]

You can always come to Florida for some sunshine, good food, relaxation,and love from your grandmother!