It seems that some folks have done a bunch of photo reenactments of children’s drawings. My Russian is not so hot so I can’t understand the full story, but the pictures are all kinds of awesome. I’m guessing that the writing and photo folk are Japanese, but would love it if someone could confirm that.
When you hand in your key to the locker in the beit midrash (um, study hall), you know rabbinical school is just about over.
And, indeed, rabbinical school is just about over. I have one more exam–tomorrow–and Ordination is Monday night. It’s a little hard to believe, but it’s also very exciting, and it definitely feels like time, insofar as it would ever feel like time to do something as momentous as this. Becoming clergy? A pretty big deal. The only analogy I can think of is to getting married–except even there, the nature of the commitment, and the things that are hard and the things that are beautiful are not quite the same, I think. Well, I’m married, but I’m not yet clergy, so maybe I’ll have something intelligent to say about it all on the other side.
I’m sorry, blog, that this has been such a slow year for posting. It all just sort of zoomed by–the full load of classes, the internship, the working on various books and things, the planning for next year. I haven’t had as much time as I would like to have had to reflect on the whole process, or even to share some of the things that’ve been interesting, as they’ve happened. Zoooom. Hopefully soon I’ll have a little more time to catch my breath and blog and stuff more often.
So as for the news. I guess the big thing is that I’m moving to the Boston area in about a month. That’s pretty big. I’ve been paying California taxes for 11 years, now. It’ll be nice, though, I think, to go back to a city culture that’s a bit older and more established than SF or LA–lots of brick and mortar and history, or something. I went to college in Providence, though, so I know the whole New England scene a little bit, and have spent many fun days playing in B-town. It’s a great city, and I’m looking forward to getting to know it as a denizen. This now brings the places I’ve lived total up a bit–Chicago, Providence, SF, NYC, J’lem, LA, now this. Time to explore a whole new city. Anyway, the impetus for the move is that my sweetie will be starting a post-doc, but it’s a happy thing that it’s happening in such a Jewishly excellent place. I’m looking for the right (thing or combination of things that will be a) fit, work-wise, and may spend the fall freelancing and gigging and working on a few other book projects (more on that in a sec) and seeing how things unfold.
In that spirit, I’d like to officially make myself available to you as a scholar-in-residence. Check the “Speaking” link above to see some of the talks I give, and be in touch with me (”contact,” natch) about whatever you’d like–I do have a whole big fat pile of text under my belt, and a lot of different things I can do.
Books–so I’m editing this anthology for NYU Press on Judaism and sex. It’s been a lot of geeky fun to work on, and I’m close to the end; all the essays are in, and most of them have had their final adjustments. There are still a few details to take care of, though, all on the “stuff I actually have to do and can’t actually blame on contributors for being late” tip in order to get the mss ready for delivery to the publisher. I’m also co-editing a series of books on Jewish ethics for JPS. My co-editor is Rabbi Elliot Dorff, a teacher of mine and one of the universe’s true great mentsches. I’ve never co-edited before, but it’s been a pleasure, so far, to work with him on it (we’ve been meeting once a week-ish all semester), if a bit insane. We’re doing three volumes at once: Sex, War, and Social Justice. Three entire separate books, at one time. That’s keeping me entertained for the moment, really. That and getting ordained and trying to figure out how exactly we’re going to pull off moving in the next month, and all that fun stuff. Never a dull moment.
Oh! And I a nice little pre-Ordination mention in the Forward. Can’t not share that!
OK, dear blog. I’ll try to be better about you from now on. Don’t be too mad about my neglect, OK?
It was a lovely Pesach, full of family and friends and a nice dose of Israel. Our celebrations centered around the holy city of Haifa, but I did get to sneak out and see friends in Jerusalem for a day or two. I got to see the ultra-Orthodox folks cooking mangels (bbq,) in Gan Sacher, got to drink coffee at Tmol Shilshom and Cafe B’Gina and Tachanat HaCafeh (there was a lot of coffee) and drink Arak at Uganda and sit on my friend’s mirpesset (balcony? that’s the right word, right? I’ve forgotten English) with a gorgeous nighttime view of the Old City walls, got to wander around a little aimlessly with friends, bumping into other friends and having one of those spontaneous Jerusalem Hol HaMoed days. Jerusalem is like a love I’ve never quite gotten over, and probably never will. I don’t have to know now if we’re meant to be together long-term, or just have passionate reunions every now and again before returning to our regular lives. Either way, I’m so glad for Jerusalem. It splits my heart right open to be there.
There was also a day trip to Cesaria to see dear friends who were parked there for the week. Too much goodness. Not enough time.
There was a lot of truly lovely family time as well–catching up with important family that I don’t see often enough, and getting to play at a new house on a moshav in Galilee as part of that. The part with the family was the most important part, and the part about which I’ll say the least.
Now I’m home, jet-laggy and catching up with the life whose deadlines haven’t vanished just because I did for a while.
Hope those of you who had Pesach had it but good.
Ladies and germs, the first review is in. (This is from PW, the industry rag that reviews books a couple of months in advance of the release date, so that (among other things) potential reviewers can skim the listings of new books and decide what looks interesting and worth their time. Surprised’s pub date is August 15.)
In this memoir of her journey from punk-partying atheist teenager to rabbi-in-training (yarmulke and all), Ruttenberg chronicles the awakening and intensification of religious life. The book’s breezy style, mixing personal anecdotes with reflection, is balanced by thoughtful narrative about what religion is and what it demands of its adherents. The author weaves in her religious studies training gently, applying occasional references to classical theologians (Kierkegaard and Maimonides), medieval mystics (Teresa of Ávila), and modern thinkers (Thomas Merton and Elliot Dorff) as they illuminate a particular insight or experience. Although the details of Ruttenberg’s experience—including wild parties in California’s dotcom boom, a lonely Shabbat in Tel Aviv, and praying in tefillin—may be unique, her description of her growing awareness of the power of ritual, the support of community, and religion as relationship will resonate with all sorts of spiritual seekers. (Aug.)
They have now printed and distributed invitations to ordination, with my name listed on the side along with those of my seven classmates mentsches.
Since it would be really embarrassing to have to use White-Out at this late date, I guess they’re going to have to go through with ordaining me. In, uh, 41 days.
Sweet.
I’ve never seen internal conflict look so startling and beautiful.
HBO has a wonderful new documentary out called Autism: The Musical about, yes, a group of autistic kids working together in a theater group. It chronicles a few kids, as well as their parents and their struggles and triumphs. It’s heartbreaking and moving and really very recommended.
And, lucky for you, the whole thing–all 90 mins of it–is streaming online, here.
One of the best articles in the current issue of Bitch is about the way the NYT Book Review handles titles with explicitly feminist content–and, most notably, who they tap to review such books. I’ve seen this happen a few times (including with friends’ books), and it’s fascinating, to say the least, to see this tracked as part of a bigger pattern.
Sarah Seltzer writes,
The New York Times Book Review has never exactly embraced passionate advocacy—unless it was promoting Pynchon’s and DeLillo’s place in the postmodernist canon. Even worse, it has become the place where serious feminist books come to die— or more accurately, to be dismissed with the flick of a well-manicured postfeminist wrist.
Recently, Times editors—in both the daily paper and the Sunday section—have trotted out a particularly insidious formula for bashing feminist authors. First, hire a female reviewer to unleash misogynist tropes in her piece and then, lest she appear prejudiced against her own gender, throw in an illogical, contradictory statement about the importance of a less threatening version of feminism that isn’t so “polarizing,” “provocative,” or “strident.”
The emergence of this pattern has been troubling for feminist bookworms. One nasty review was irritating, two were bewildering, and three or more became evidence of a downright bias. Professors and journalists have chastised the editors of the Sunday section for ignoring female authors and reviewers. Despite the fact that women constitute a majority of book buyers, the Times has made merely a passing effort to achieve parity on its pages. For instance, none of the paper’s “Top five novels of 2007” were written by a woman, and only 13 of 50 on its short list were female-authored.
Beyond this, though, books that take women’s issues in hand are rarely taken seriously. It’s not just that they are criticized, which they are, but rather that the books, their authors—and heck, the whole feminist movement—are routinely treated with a mixture of giggly naïveté and barbed antifeminist prejudices. In a 2007 op-ed for In These Times, media critic Susan J. Douglas noted that there’s “a robust tradition in the Times Book Review to stereotype feminists as single-minded, humorless ideologues who march daily to some shrine where we all genuflect before images of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.”
Read the whole article here.
Here’s hoping that this trend shifts, speedily and in our days.
Hag Purim Sameach!!
Blessed Good Friday!
Happy Persian New Year (Nawruz)!
Joyous Mawlid el-Nabi!
Most excellent Magha Puja Day!
Fabulous Holi!
Enjoy Birth of Mahavira Day!
Rock on Festival of Naw-Ruz!
Happy Spring Equinox!
Today is, indeed, a very busy day for us religious folk all over the place.