Steinbeck opens The Grapes of Wrath with a phrase “To the red country and part of the grey country of Oklahoma…” LimmudNY for me has been a mix of the red country and grey country of our Jewish people. This was evident for me as I walked through the grey skies and saw on opposite sides of the road a bright red puddle of dirt and water against the backdrop of a grey raining and misty sky.
Walking with shamirpower I was talking about Yahweh cults, organizational dynamics, chavurah movements, plausability structures, boundaries, the beauty of the wet mist settled over this section of the Catskills, and this gathering of multistriped zebras of Jews. I was struck by the realization that this freeflow of conversation could have involved any person at this gathering. Each person has such a wealth of knowledge, experience, and depth, that any conversation can jumpstart a more intense exploration. Also, the larger realization that these conversations can and should happen more outside of this space. To interact as people, experiencing genuine relations, this is what we should take away from this gathering.
During the walk, the best part of my day, I saw the red earth mingle with the grey sky… And now, as I sit still blogging silently in the midst of a vibrant lounge, I see the red adom Jewishness mingling with the grey spaces in which we try to find meaning, relevance, and order. The co-mingled spaces, the flow of learning, this is LimmudNY for me.
Last streams – Balaam’s Donkey is my Jewish hero, guided Jewish meditation resonates, Great Small Works, Jewish astrology is in more places than you might think, I need to stop eating sugar.
-By (guest blogger) Shammai (shammai.vs.hillel at gmail at com)