What a Day

[debka_notion]

Today was another day-on-a-yo-yo, a bit. I reset my alarm clock in the morning, and then forgot to turn it back on, so I slept in a bit. Then I did a bit of gemara with zodiacmg, gave some fabric scraps to a friend who needs them for a crafts project she's doing with her Hebrew school kids, and wasted a little time. I did get my basic outline for my Yom Kippur services set up, at least.

Gemara class was its usual random self- we went through about an amud, but the teacher didn't seem to know exactly what was going on with that amud, or how to teach it. It made for an odd class, but it wasn't unpleasant, at least. I even got up the nerve to read in class- something that takes me a while to feel ok with in these contexts where half the class has so much more experience than I do.

I checked my email, and got an email from the Brandeis Chabad house, asking for money, and including a testimonial, basically, from a student. No big deal, except that the letter talks all about how this girl grew up in a Conservative home, and therefore was never taught to love Judaism, and never felt part of a Jewish community, and was never told that she should marry a Jew, and that she learned all this at Chabad. I found it pretty insulting, and wrote a rather cranky letter in response. I think I got as far as telling them that I'd been thinking about sending them some contribution, but that now I was glad I'd never sent them money, and that especially at this time of year, they should think twice about how they talk about Klal Yisrael. We'll see what happens. Maybe I over-reacted, but I'm leaning towards thinking that I didn't.

At dancing, a quite effusive older Israeli man basically scolded me for not getting to zodiacmg in time to make sure that he danced with me- that that was the only way I was going to get a partner. Since he'd spent much of the evening trying to get zodiacmg to let him set him up so that he could make a shidduch and get into Olam haBa, this felt a lot like being thrown at my ex. I really do wonder why people at dancing have such a knack for that particular activity.

Comments

[crewgrrl.livejournal.com]

I don't think you overreacted at all. It was precisely the response I had to a talk given by a ba'alat teshuvah author after a talk that involved her life history. She talked about being a committed Conservative Jew, who was very involved in USY, but she never was taught to "love God" and ended up on an ashram for many years before a "frum" rabbi brought her back to Judaism. I maintain that no one ever gets where they are without the foundation that came before, and that there is no need to disparage who you were before.

But hey, that's just my heretical opinion.

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

No, you didn't overreact to the Chabad e-mail. I think I would have done the same thing.

I'm curious to see whether they respond, or whether their response is just sort of to shrivel up in embarrassment and confusion.

[redlily.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I think you did the right thing re: Chabad. Obviously I'm biased, but just in terms of public relations, it is monumentally stupid to insult the denomination that probably most of Chabad's "customers" come from. If you reacted that way, it means plenty of other people did, too.

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

I doubt that most of Chabad's "customers" come from the Conservative denomination. Or do you mean specifically Chabad of Brandeis (about which I know nothing)?

[redlily.livejournal.com]

I do specifically mean the Brandeis one, yes.

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

Just yesterday, someone was telling me about some Chabadniks who went up to a Chasidic Rebbe (!) and asked him whether he had leyg'd tefillin that day.