It all makes sense.
When we met and I asked “so what do you do?” she said she was starting rabbinical school.
Of course she was starting rabbinical school. I had met a handful of rabbinical students before her, but she was by far the most obvious rabbi-in-training. (The others were interesting people too, but they just seemed like grad students to me. With Suzie, it made more sense.)
She was a short round New Yorker, kind of on the butch side, with a giant smile, and something in her eyes that said her soul was on fire.
Why rabbinical school? “I was in a PhD program for Jewish philosophy, but I dropped out when I decided I liked people more than writing papers.”
Of course that was why she started rabbinical school–she was a scholar, but a friendly one. She wasn’t trying to prove that she was important, she wasn’t trying to be godly or holier-than-thou; she was just trying to be herself. That made sense.
Two years later when I was describing her to an old family friend, and I laughed and said, “so I guess I’m going to be a rebbetzin!” My friend turned to me and said, “actually, there’s something in that that makes perfect sense.”
Here’s to my Suzie, who will be a rabbi in 12 days. Sometimes the universe is baffling and unexpected, but sometimes even in the craziness, it all makes sense.