Diary Entry

Tuesday 5th May
Visited an esteemed member of our community in the morning who was recovering from a knee replacement. It was great to see him in good fettle, and this certainly cheered me up for the day...until the evening. There I was enjoying the first 10 minutes of the European Champions League Semi-final with Alex Mitchell, whose hospitality was delightful, and Arsenal were already clearly knocked out of the competition. A clear message from above I sensed...either football is just not that important; or stop supporting Arsenal.

Wednesday 6th, Thursday 7th May
The Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue had organised their annual conference this year in a lovely country house just north of London in Hertfordshire. A scholar was brought in from the States to talk about marital issues such as relationships between couples who do not share the same level of religiousness. We had a talk on the present situation of anti-semitism by Anthony Julius and a quite hilarious talk at dinner by Martin Ziegman, who has a long and successful career as a barrister. He told some great stories about being a religious Jew and a barrister. He had received permission in the 1970's to enter a hotel lift on Shabbat if someone else entered first and only exit when someone else did so. He once entered a lift, and a beautiful lady entered after him. She then proceeded to ask him 'On which floor are you exiting' to which he replied 'When you exit, so will I'. She got off at the next floor! We had a great shiur from Rabbi Yehoshua Hartman who teaches in London, and there was plenty Rabbinic networking time as well...and not to forget, the food was good. This was the first year that the conference was non-residential as there are no kosher hotels now in Bournemourth that can house the conference - but nevertheless it was good value.

I arrived back after the conference direct to Slice Pizza in Golders Green where I took four pizzas to Fortismere School for their Jewish society. There I lead a facilitated discussion on Jewish myticism - in many ways demistifying mistycism. Lag B'Omer is also the yahrtzheit of Shimon bar Yochai who is traditionally understood to have authored the Zohar, a classic work on kabbala. Twenty-five children turned up to the Jewish society meeting - not sure whether for my words of wisdom...or for the pizza!

In the evening was my appraisal group, with Clive, Stephen and Helen in attendance, working with me on how to improve my effectiveness in the community, and discussing ideas and projects that I am looking into. It has so far been incredibly helpful and constructive.

Friday 8th May
The induction was a leader article in the Community Section of the Jewish Chronicle, focussing also on the comments I made in my speech surrounding the eruv. If you would like to be involved in the eruv idea, then be in touch.

Shabbat 9th May
The sermon this week centred around the statement in Ethics of the Fathers - 'In a place where there are no people, strive to be a person'. I applied this to the lack of forthcoming candidates for the position of warden and how important it was that men came forward. I did praise the womenfolk of our community for their dedication to our community!
My talk after Shabbat afternoon service was on a possibly obscure but quite interesting topic. It is considered a mitzvah to give up one's life if put into certain difficult situations, such as being forced to kill someone else or die. The issue we discussed was whether like other positive commandments, this would require a blessing. There has been much discussion on this topic and over what exactly the blessing would be indeed. This week I will talk about whether it is acceptable for a woman to read the megilla on Purim. Come along and enjoy a Shabbat evening discussion.

Sunday 10th May
This week's GCSE breakfast was as tasty as ever, with bagels, cheese, smoked salmon, croissants, rogelach and more. We are studying 'rites of passage' at the moment and on Sunday we focuses on the Jewish funeral, after having covered brit, pidyon haben, and wedding. We spend a family afternoon in sunny Golders Hill Park after which I returned to teach a barmitzvah lesson, batmitzvah lesson and then pop off to the Synagogue AGM
Another busy week! But if a week has passed where a number of Jewish men or women know more about their Judaism, I am satisfied.