become a rabbi

For so long I have sought something to do that I was really inspired by. Finally, this is it.

we had a dinner and a service just for family and friends. Tomorrow morning is the final, big, real service. After I check out of the hotel, I am not sure when I’ll be near a computer again for a bit, so I’m declaring this “done” tonight.

Technically, it will be “done” somewhere between 10 and noon tomorrow, but barring something really unexpected, I’m there.

Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me on the way, who has read my messages.

I’m at the next beginning.

I met with a few women friends in my class. All of us are older, only one of us has found a job so far. We were in a lot of ways the long shots in the class, the “old ladies” with extra pounds or disabilities. All of us survived serious losses of one kind or another. All of us were told, by someone, at some point, that we didn’t belong in rabbinical school, that the admissions committee had made a politically correct mistake in saying “yes” to us.

We got together in the backyard of a private home, around a hot tub that wasn’t originally intended as a mikveh. Like us, it didn’t look quite kosher but the truth is that it holds the ritually required amount of water, to which we added a bucket of frozen rainwater, to make it “living water” as required by Jewish law. A legal work-around, sure, but one that more official mikvaot use in very hot, dry places like Los Angeles. Like us, this funny-looking mikveh was the real deal, from a liberal Jewish point of view.

We sat in the dark under the moon and talked for a long while about our years in school and the journeys that brought us there. We talked about supportive and unsupportive families, the friends and loving partners who got us through each day, the grit it had taken, and the losses incurred. We talked about what lay ahead.

Most of all, we listened to one another.

Then one at a time, we immersed in the awkward pool, saying the blessing, dunking until every part of the body was under, and at the end, helping each other out. We didn’t want any casualties, so close to the end.

We joked about the fact that none of us could afford a slip or a fall, not now, not with Sunday so close.

Two of us were exhausted from travel (job-hunting!) and went home to bed. The rest of us went to IHOP for dinner at midnight.

It’s a holy time. It’s a joyful time. It is the end and the beginning.

I delivered the Torah Scroll to the temple, where it will be held safely under lock and key until Sunday. (Whew.)

Tonight I’m joining several other women in the class in going to mikveh, a ritual immersion.

In the meantime, I headed to West Hollywood, which seemed like the appropriate place to soak up the energy of the California Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. So here I am at Starbucks, catching up on Internet stuff!

I was trying on wedding veils.

We met at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple where the ordination will be held, and learned where to leave our stuff, where to meet, and all the logistics for the service.

I also had a chat with the director of the rabbinic program about my employment prospects, and he had some good suggestions for me.

This is all becoming very real!

and tomorrow I go back to L.A. A week from tomorrow (Sunday) is ordination day.

I have my tallit (prayer shawl) a new one, ready for the event. I’ve got my kippah (hat). I’ve arranged to pick up the Torah Scroll from the temple I served for the past year; they have generously allowed me to use it for the ceremony. Several of us are going to mikveh (ritual immersion) later this week, to prepare for the event.

Of course, all of this marks a boundary in time, but the changes to make a rabbi have (one hopes) already happened.

Driving around Oakland this week I kept being reminded of the time before I left for Jerusalem in the summer of 2002. I had no clue what was ahead of me. I guess that we never have a clue, really, about what lies ahead.

I’ll be online this coming week a bit, but when I see Oakland next, I’ll be “Rabbi Adar.” Amazing.

I had a conversation with my rabbi last week about all sorts of things, among them, how to make the transition to being a real rabbi with my home congregation (where Cat and I will continue to belong, at least for the time being.)

Tachlis (practical stuff). This is really about to happen.

Right now I’m having lot of these conversations. It’s a very sweet time.

It was the second seder with my congregation, and we had a great evening. Started off with a mistake, reading from page 2 of the Haggadah instead of page 1, so we all had a good laugh. There’s something to be said for the rabbi making a dumb mistake so any mess-ups after that look minor. Everyone loosened up a lot.

The seder was sweet, and the dinner was good, and I am really sad that I’ll be leaving these folks after only one year with them. I wish I could have taken ASL classes, but it was interesting, both of the teachers of ASL who were there said that they’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much I picked up, and how willing I have been to try. Part of that willingness came from the fact that never once did anyone get cross with me for being slow and needing repetitions. They have all been my teachers.

I’ve got one more Friday night service with them, and then we are done. It’s been a great internship, and I shall miss them very much.

It’s A MONTH FROM TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn’t realize that until just now… thank you, Robots, for that challenge thingie that I have used as my personal countdown clock!

Oh my goodness. I am so… astonished.