Professional life

Although admittedly kids have taken over my life, I'm not as much on maternity leave as you think! Lots of good non-child things are happening.

- I finished one class from spring semester, and took incompletes in the other three. It's hard to write 20-page papers on so little sleep. I'm counting on the fact (vain hope?) that Ari will be sleeping more in late summer, and I can concentrate more then and finish up.

- Last Saturday I officiated at my first Bat Mitzvah. I was really nervous about all the choreography in the Torah service, because so many people go up and down the bima and I have to direct them all. But it worked out beautifully, mostly because of all the practice I did. The night before Jonathan volunteered to help me: he pretended to be the Bat Mitzvah kid and literally went through the motions with me, figuring out where I should stand, where to tell the kid and her family to be, etc. The best part was when we were pantomiming the part of the service where we pass the Torah down from generation to generation. Ari became the Torah, and Jonathan passed him to me, then I passed him back to him, four times, mimicking what the family would do the next day. Ari was excited by all the movement, because in the end, when we "laid the Torah on the podium," (laid Ari on the bed), after we finished chanting the song for undressing the Torah, Jonathan said, "And now Torah waves his arms." :)

- Today I presented a paper at a conference of the Society for Classical Reform Judaism. It was based on an essay contest entry about why halachically women should be able to nurse during services in the sanctuary. Again, it went well. I haven't presented a paper in years. It felt good to be more strictly academic. Even better, the paper won a nice tidy sum in the contest.

- I get my second Master's this Thursday, an MAHL (Masters of Hebrew Letters). I admit I'm not quite sure what that means - as my dad says, it sounds like I know the alef bet really well! - but I'm very pleased nonetheless. I didn't go to the ceremony for my first MA, since we had just moved to Israel. This time I'm going to wear the cap and gown and do the whole shebang.

- I'm still doing spot work for researchers at the Archives. And last week I got a tax document from my Norwegian client. I can't read a word of it, but it looks cool. I love that my last name has the line through the "O."

And this last isn't really something I did, but something neat that happened nonetheless: a picture of me in the library is on the back page of the HUC President's Report!