Status Updates From The Seventh Telling: The Ka...

'The 'P' account, how you call it' he continued, 'is the first creation story. Then you have your 'J' account, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Creation story number two. You can be sure I didn't teach it like this in Meah Shearim.'

One person converting to Judaism, marrying, and becoming bar mitzvah, all in the course of a single morning ... that's pretty impressive.

"The rabbis in their wisdom fixed the calendar so that the first day of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur could never fall on a Sunday. That way we always have church space to rent."

"And what did God do on Shabbat?" "God rested." "Rested? Where did you ever get such an idea? God had sex!"

"We designate you our chaver," one said. "You are our friend. Friend is the highest title we can give you, higher even than rabbi."

Moshe taught three courses at the university, and he took three. He reasoned if he had to expend so much energy to find a parking space, he might as well make the most of it.

Clergy became so smooth in the expression of concern, even when sincere it was difficult to distinguish the genuine from the professional.

Moshe wondered how it was when we go to sleep we give God a Ruach, and when we wake up we get back a Neshamah. It's like giving someone a twenty and getting two fifties in change.

"Rivkah talked about what it felt like to have a thousand people in the congregation discuss what she was wearing on Rosh Hashanah. Moshe spoke of what it was like to choreograph a service for a thousand people and try to pray at the same time."

"You have a gift," he said, his back turned. "What do you intend to do with it?" Moshe shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Tell me what you were doing. You weren't praying when you were singing that?" "I was singing," Rivkah said. "The words are beautiful. The music is beautiful." Ethel turned to Moshe. "And what were you doing when you were saying 'Amen'?" He smiled. "I was praying." "I'm confused," she admitted. "It's not so bad," he reassured her. "Rivie and I have this little difference. Other than that, we get along just fine."

"Moshe, in spite of his original good intentions, was on his way to becoming a Rabbi, not only with an uppercase R, but also an uppercase I."

"They explored and experienced every quarter, every neighborhood, every national and religious enclave. ... Each had its own incense, flavor, color, texture, and sound. Rivkah and Moshe imbibed and absorbed everything Jerusalem had to offer. They became like semipermeable membranes to the compounds of the city. A holy osmosis drew Jerusalem into their souls ... "