Dream, Brother

I wrote the rabbi last week with some of the questions I had — mostly for myself — on the last blog post. I have not yet heard back from him. Not surprising, as he's a busy man. I'll try back next week if there is still no answer. Hopefully, my email program will be back up and running by then.

Last night, though, I had a dream that I went to visit him. He was at a very crowded desk (though not nearly as much as his real one!), in a large basement for an industrial-type building that seemed otherwise to have been used last sometime in the 1950s. He looked up, glad to see me. I was glad to see him, too.

[Not part of the dream — we celebrated our first Shabbess in Seville last weekend. It was sweet, but a bit lonely and made us miss Beyt Tikkun a lot.]

We chatted for a while, and he asked me if I'd read the book he'd recommended. I don't recall what book it was or if it was real one. I told him that I had not. He commented on a recent email he'd sent out and asked my opinion. We chatted for a bit more, and then I asked him if he'd had a chance to read my email about the rabbinate. He said, "oh yeah, that. Let's go for a walk."

We walked outside, around what looked like condo complex. He was rather spry and walking briskly. He explained to me along the way that he didn't think it would be a good idea after all, my going to rabbinical school. "If you're looking to get political," he said, "it's not always good for people to know that you're coming from a spiritual perspective. It turns people off."

Then, dreamlike, we were joined by a few more folks, students, and we sat down for a Talmud lesson, which I also can't remember. End of dream.

It was good to see the rabbi, and talk, even if what he said was totally opposite of what he spends most of the time preaching!

This week, I want to find the congregation here in town. From what I understand, they're fairly traditional, but I'd like to get into the habit of daily minyan, and I can't do that alone. Once we're a bit more settled, I also want to start posting for a progressive English-language Kabballat Shabbat/minyan, to see if I get any takers out here.