RHR 2008: Boker or from RHR!
December 09, 2008
True confessions time: last night I wasn't up to attending a long awards banquet. Instead, the friend with whom I'm staying took me out for Ghanaian food near his apartment. I haven't been to Ghana in years now, but the omo tuo made me tremendously happy, and we had a nice talk with the proprietor about the Ghanaian elections (which Ethan just blogged about), which was a lovely and mellow way to end the day.
This morning I made it back to the conference on the early side for shacharit -- today a contemplative service led by Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg and rabbinic student Ezra Weinberg. It was exactly what I needed: good singing, good company (I got to sit between two of my ALEPH buddies), and a skillful interweaving of liturgy and teaching. At the start of the service, we each received an index card featuring words from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and were invited to offer pearls from that document interspersed with the birchot ha-shachar (morning blessings), which worked surprisingly well.
At breakfast, I got to sit with a few folks from Congregation Beth El in Bennington, and with my ALEPH friend Ed who is the rabbi at Beth Shalom in Bozeman -- a delicious mingling of my worlds! And now it's time for the first morning session. Off we go into day three of the conference...