Blog Lovin'

Mindy says that there hasn't been any blog lovin lately- and she's right. Rabbinical school sure keeps a girl busy. But I can repent, right? Here's a very long post about the last week-

Monday morning I led my "official" Shacharit (morning) service for our Reform Liturgy Workshop. I worked with Claire, one of my classmates and friends and Maria, a very cool cantorial student. We had hoped to not make the huge deal of services that some of our classmates have made, but we wanted it to be clean and enjoyable. Since this week is Shabbat Shirah (when we read the song at the sea that the Israelites sang after crossing through the Red Sea), we used Shirat HaYam (the song at the sea) as a theme- I wrote a kavanah (what once would have been called a "creative reading" in my NFTY days) about the irony between a Midrash I found and the sinking of a ship in the Red Sea last Friday. We also used a popular tune for a line in Shirat HaYam as a niggun (song without words) at the beginning and the end. I hadn't felt nervous at all, and then suddenly, when services were about to begin, I did feel nervous! I tried to calm myself down and finally felt better a few minutes in. The toughest part about service leading is the post-service review. Everyone who participates-- the service leaders, the person who gives the dvar Torah, the three Torah readers and anyone else who wants to come have a lunch meeting with several members of the faculty for a review of the service. I've been to two already, but I was still a little anxious. It turned out to be fine, I got some constructive criticism about my Hebrew pronunciation and Tamar called me "intervally challenged," but all in all it was a pretty good experience and I'm really happy that it's over!

Moving on...Monday night we had our second meeting of the Vagina Monologues cast- and afterwards, we got an email from Rena, a 2nd yr. Rabbinical student who is organizing the show on our LA campus. She, and another student Sara went to Eve Ensler's performance of her new show The Good Body and afterwards they had a minute to speak to Eve and tell her about what we're doing. Here's an excerpt from Rena's email:

After the performance, Eve did a special session with V-Day organizers.
Just some question and answer time. Her message was simple and
profound - Stop giving in to the obsession about our bodies. Stop letting it
distract and derail us. Realize that we all do it. (Even EVE, the
crazy incredible ultra-liberal feminist). And then put all that time
and effort into changing "the fucking world."Before we left, I decided that
Sara and I needed to tell Eve about HUC. I invited her to see the show
on any of the three campuses of our Jewish Seminary (don't worry! i told her
we train future rabbis,cantors, educators and jewish communal service
pros!!!) and honestly, she was a bit in awe. Not just that Sara and I are
studying to be rabbis (in a religion that I'm sure she thinks of as
patriarchal...cause it is...) but just the idea that this was happening in
the "tribe". I can't tell you how often I forget how incredible and
radical what we are doing is. I can't tell you how often I get bogged
down in the details of trying to make it all perfect. I can't tell you
how often it doesn't occur to me that when my father was in HUC there were
like 3 women there. Seeing Eve Ensler, the true Vagina Queen and
ultimate Vagina Warrior be taken aback by us, by our production...well, it was
certainly a reminder. Who knew that this could be so big. It wasn't until
I finished the show last year that I realized we had changed the Jewish world
forever. And it wasn't until tonight that I realized how much the more so we are
doing that this year. -Rena P

That was pretty powerful. On the production side of things, we are starting to get busy- right now we're figuring out where the performance will be and lots and lots of details like costumes, building or constructing a set, creating music for the intermission and on and on...March 2nd will be here before I know it...that's all for now...a b-day update will be up soon! Love to all! (especially you Mind!)