Friday, June 08, 2012

Erev Shabbos Kodesh

8:27 AM - The Shulchan Aruch - if I'm not mistaken - writes black on white that "tov me'at bekavanah mei'harbei belo kavanah" - better a little with intent than a lot without intent in regard to Tefilah-Prayer.  And yet.

That idea was part of what I taught at the end of the year when we learned about the Mishkan.  This is why the term nediv lev is used - because G-d wants us top give our hearts - after all we can't give him gold or silver, all we can give is our love.  This is why the Bet HaMikdash is described in Sir HaShirim as being built with love...

8:48 AM - Been writing on the acrostic poem that'll end this post, I think. Time for breakfast and then proctoring and then writing a final.

11:00 PM - Just finished proctoring the morning exam.

"I have CDO,
It's extreme OCD -
I have to put the letters in order."

- Anonymous (Amnnoosuy)

End of School Year Haiku

A small honors class
taking a Spanish final
and the world is good

An intense exam
the only noise is silence
and the clicking of pens

It's all Greek to me
the whole foreign language thing
(but Hebrew is home)

"So, school is over?"
Please stop asking that, people!
It's so not over

"Any summer plans?'
"Breathing, praying, being."
"...- Any summer plans?"

12:55 PM - Working on Monday's final, in my office, just spoke with a parent. Spoke Torah Guidance with a student for a while.  One of his questions:  If it's an issue to make images of G-d, it it also an issue to write about G-d?

1:20 PM - Finished Monday final, now need to copy, submit, sign off, eat lunch with my friend and colleague Barry Kessler.

4:04 PM -  Just got home.  It's more than hot enough for me - the schleppy ride home in the heat took nth wind out of me.

4:47 PM - Just spoke to my brother - hslabw.  Feeling weak from the heat and lack of sleep and work work work.  My brother and his family are planning to go to Florida and Hawaii in the summer and Israel - probably - from Rosh HaShanah through Sukkot, he just told me. Nice.

I don't know why naps often come for me with guilt. I know I need one now.

6:59 PM - I often think of a vort I head one Friday night many years ago when I walked up the steps to Yeshivat Kol Torah and heard a shmooze from the Rosh Yeshiva Rav Ades.  hHis point was that human nature is that when one is proven wrong it is tempting to fight the one who proved you wrong rather than embrace them and their truth.  He used this to explaiu why Nimrod through Avraham's brother in the fire right fter Avraham proved that Hashem was the true G-d by coming out uncathed.  He also used it regarding Yitro - that was the parsha - and said that this is why Rashi said he heard two things - about Kriyat Yam Suf and Amalek.  It means that he heard that they reacted to the truth by fighting it and he chose to go the other way, difficult as that is. I taught this to my class this year and it seemed to resonate.

7:36 PM - In a nice, unexpected moment, at graduation the recipient of the teacher's Chumash prize came over and thanked me for being her tenth grade Chumash teacher - and shared things she remembered from the class.  On a related note, I had a nice chat with a sister of a student from this year in honors Chumash, who had been my student about seven years ado when she was in the top tenth grade Chumash class.  I still recall a brilliant comment she made in class, answering a question another student raised.  (Question, answer, name, available upon request).

On an unrelated related note, this haiku appeared on the back of on of my Chumash finals:

I learned that haiku
are not merely seventeen
empty syllables

7:47 PM - Soon Shabbos, with a flower in her hair, and a fire for our soul.

Soon - at twilight - Shabbos will descend upon us on her chariot - the setting sun, and give us permission to join her in a realm beyond time.

Soon Shabbos, and I can breathe out the week and breathe in the clean oxygen of this holy day.

Soon Shabbos, and though I tend to not show it, it is never soon enough.

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