Response to sad story

Nice seeing you on Shabbas, great sermon.

re: the sad story of the guy in conversion class, it
was nice of you to raise the point to sensitize the
congregation to be nice to guests. The Rabbi in the
city where he attended should be notified that his
congregation should be put on notice to be especially
nice to guests.

But, in the interest of full disclosure you might want
to let prospective converts know that, when it comes
to intellectual and ritual issues, as every kid who
sat at a Jewish dinner table knows, Jewish
conversation can be a contact sport. I guess that's
how we show our love for each other. No surprise that
Freud was Jewish and that we're all a little neurotic.


Recently, I sent out an e-mail with a "liberal" bent
to friends at my shull. The Rabbi responded by
warning me to be prepared to be heckled at kiddush the
next Shabbas. I responded by asking, "is there any
other reason to stick around for kiddush".

I just read a beautiful anecdote in the book, "A
Bintel Brief", a collection of letters from the first
half of the twentieth century from the advice column
in the Daily Forward. Seems that there was an
apikores who showed up at shul every shabbas. Someone
asked him why he bothered, didn't he feel like a
hypocrite. He answered, "I grew up with and love the
people at the shul, especially Silverberg who is a
tzadik. Every shabbas, Silverberg comes to shul to
speak to God, and I come to shul to speak to
Silverberg."


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