Once again, a bunch of very smart and wonderful people are set to enter the Rabbi-Tron (the magical ordination machine) tonight. This is always a momentous occasion, this one all the more so for me personally since I began rabbinical school with a whole bunch of these folks and, had I not taken this year off, I might have been up there with them–with the hocus-pocus clergy-making magic and my most excellent colleagues (and friends). After so many hours of sweat, tears and Aramaic dictionaries, I can testify to the particular excellence of this bunch–and can be properly awed at how far everyone has come since we showed up, all bushy-tailed, that first day of orientation 5 years ago. I’m just sorry that I’m not able to be there with them to kvell in person, but unfortunately I haven’t gotten this inverting time and space thing to work for me to the extent that I would need to. Dangit.

Nonetheless, to my friends becoming rabbis tonight–mazal tov, congratulations, you have earned this (truly), and good golly, I can’t wait to see what you all do next.