Pirkei Avot

Wow, ok, so catch up time. My Rabbi told me I really should keep a journal at least for as long as I'm in the conversion class. It should help me with my final paper - I'm thinking it's something to the effect of "compare how you were at the beginning and end", or "how have you changed as a result of the class"? Anyways, so I'm now Director of Technology at The mGive Foundation - an exciting change for me. I get to create a new, clean system from scratch - not something I get to do at most jobs (most jobs meaning I come in and have to maintain something already in existence). My diet never got too far. We've replaced most of our kitchen applicances now - the oven and the fridge both within the last month. About the only thing I haven't replaced in there is our washer *knock on wood*.

So, as far as the conversion class, I've attended an intro class, Jewish History 1 and 2, ADL and a class on the 4 major branches of Judaism. Jewish History 1 and 2 were fun - sadly we only got to about 200 CE (AD for you Christian types) and so my Rabbi has assigned me some light reading to get me caught up on Jewish history until around 1800 or so (when the reform movement and the orthodox movement started to split from each other in a more formal way). I also have an assignment to write myself into Jewish history, somewhere, as a Jew. I'm excited about it, but it's hard to decide when and where. I think I might try 1950's Israel, or perhaps New York. I'm unsure. Gotta decide soon, I only have 3 weeks left.

I was meeting with the Rabbi today and I happened to mention Pirkei Avot - silly me! Now I'm reading about a chapter a week, which along with commentaries is bound to make anyone's head get a little muddled. Just the first chapter (along with all the commentary I can find online) is a huge amount of reading for me. Well at least tomorrow night's class is on Talmud - should be interesting!