the priest, the minister and the rabbi(nical student)

In my Hebrew class, there is a young Catholic Priest named Phillipe. He is from Paris. There was also, until a week ago, a Protestant Minister named Bernard, from Geneva, Switzerland. Bernard finished up his month here and is now back in Switzerland. Both Bernard and Phillipe came to Jerusalem to study Hebrew, in order to study Biblical texts in Hebrew.

Ilana, my housemate, and I invited Bernard and Phillipe over for the Shabbat prior to Bernard's departure. We wanted to share a very important part of our lives in Jerusalem and a very important part of both traditional Judaism and our contemporary outlook on it.

We went to services together at the little Conservative Shule that is in the same complex as my Yeshiva. It is a very American style service, and a crowd of mostly American ex-pats. Phillipe and Bernard are the first people I've seen get so completely frisked on the way into a Synagogue (you really can't trust a guy in a clerical collar). Stranger than the intense security was the attitude of the Rabbi. Perhaps I am spoiled by the incredibly welcoming nature of my Rabbi in Portland (the way she welcomes everyone to the Temple Beth El community could well be what brought me to involvement with Judaism). He didn't once acknowledge the sore thumbs in the midst of his congregation. I was a little saddened by that. Here are two men who belong to different traditions and who are looking to understand and learn about my/our tradition. What does the Rabbi do? Ignore them. Rabbis, I think, should be ambassadors for the traditions they have studied, to congregations and to the world. Ignoring people is just not a good way to build constructive relationships across religious lines; something that absolutely needs to happen here. Regardless, both Bernard and Phillipe enjoyed the services, and asked me the many questions they had about why things happen the way they do. I don't think I messed anything up too badly.

Dinner was lovely. We also invited a friend of ours named Michelle, who is a Rabbinical student spending the year here. Michelle (a fluent French speaker and a knowledgeable and kind teacher of Judaism) sat beween Bernard and Phillipe and guided them through the sometimes bizarre but very beautiful traditions of the Shabbat table. We also had several other guests, who did a wonderful job of teaching and a less than stellar job of learning. We ate my grandmother's brisket (I don't make it as well as she does). We discussed the rabbinic view that the Shabbat table is the replacement for the sacrificial alter. We ate delicious rugelach and drank wine. We sang Shabbat songs. It was really lovely.

This past week was Rosh Hashanah and my birthday...I'll try to post some thoughts on those events in the next few days.

Shabbat Shalom