I’m tired of being mad and sad.<\/p>\n
Yeah, a cold cruel wind<\/a> blows through Pico-Robertson, but I’m leaving the hovel.<\/p>\n Friday evening.<\/p>\n I walk up Pico Blvd as a driven leaf. Brittle. Fragile. Alone.<\/p>\n I enter shul and begin to unthaw. I jump up and down. I join a conga line. I shake hands and kiss my hand after each squeeze. I get happy.<\/p>\n I have dinner with a friend from ten years ago. Aish HaTorah days.<\/p>\n What a sumptuous organic vegetarian spread.<\/p>\n These folks take their Jewish thing seriously.<\/p>\n They’re all into getting something out of Shabbos.<\/p>\n I like it.<\/p>\n We’re each asked what we’re grateful for (a Lou Rudolph question) and what we’d do with a billion dollars.<\/p>\n I’d fund the best writers to go to shuls and write reviews<\/a>.<\/p>\n "Don’t give me a bad review," says my rabbi friend.<\/p>\n "I don’t have many friends," I tell him. "You’re protected."<\/p>\n Shabbos afternoon. I want to show how ticked off I am by staying away from my home but my only other frum choice is a place where the fat smelly guy goes and I don’t want to endure that.<\/p>\n I’m gonna swallow my pride. I’m going home. Maybe I was suspended or maybe I was banned for life. It’s time to find out.<\/p>\n I have a long walk ahead and I’m on the other side of the street and 25 yards behind the rabbi.<\/p>\n I feel myself scrunching and skulking and slowing and tightening and wrecking six expensive weeks of Alexander Technique classes.<\/p>\n I run into a friend and pretend to be all hip and carefree with him.<\/p>\n I grind my right hand into a tree until it is covered with soot and sap.<\/p>\n "I’m going in," I say.<\/p>\n I haven’t been this nervous since I was on the cover of the Jewish Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n I love doing my own thing but I can’t live without community.<\/p>\n It’s time to face the music.<\/p>\n I walk inside. There are no security guards to boot me. There’s no hostility. There’s no "Sorry, pal." There’s no, "Levi, I’ve got a heavy heart, I hate to do this, but I’m going to have ask you to leave."<\/p>\n There’s just my friends. And Mincha.<\/p>\n I pick up my siddur with more piety than I’ve put on in a long time. I follow along with the Torah reading with an intensity I haven’t felt in years.<\/p>\n I greet my friends in a big showy fashion.<\/p>\n I want to demonstrate my religiosity and camraderie. Not only do I love Torah and love observing Torah, I also love my fellow Torah Jews and am loved by them in turn.<\/p>\n I am an ideal Jew. I am every rabbi’s dream. I am a gift to this shul.<\/p>\n From my live cam chat<\/a>:<\/p>\n TheSageoftheUWS: I am here to proclaim this truth: DOW 36,000 . . . someday I’m tired of being mad and sad. Yeah, a cold cruel wind blows through Pico-Robertson, but I’m leaving the hovel. Friday evening. I walk up Pico Blvd as a driven leaf. Brittle. Fragile. Alone. I enter shul and begin to … Continue reading
\nTheSageoftheUWS: That’s the title of a book from 2000 – "DOW 36000"
\nTheSageoftheUWS: There also is a book with the title "DOW 100,000"
\nTheSageoftheUWS: You need to be making more money
\nTheSageoftheUWS: Unless you plan on marrying well and by well, I mean rich
\nYourMoralLeader: i got back into my shul
\nTheSageoftheUWS: Meaning what?
\nTheSageoftheUWS: They’ve decided to let you out of their closet?
\nTheSageoftheUWS: What was\/is so great about belonging to that shul? Why not attend gay friendly happy minyan type shuls where your future shiksa bride can feel welcom?
\nTheSageoftheUWS: you should move to New York and become a lion of the Jewish world here
\nTheSageoftheUWS: If you made the move, you could have your own shul within 2 years
\nTheSageoftheUWS: …Although they were right that you were wrong to name that 18 year old girl
\nTheSageoftheUWS: you need to choose your targets more carefully
\nYourMoralLeader: what’s wrong with naming that girl?
\nTheSageoftheUWS: She’s just a kid, and did not deserve to be shamed.
\nTheSageoftheUWS: Choose bigger targets as befits a man who is well into his forties.
\nTheSageoftheUWS: Did you wave a chicken over your head this year?
\nTheSageoftheUWS: kipporis
\nYourMoralLeader: I don’t believe in chicken waving
\nTheSageoftheUWS: At Bnai Amalek, we use duck
\nTheSageoftheUWS: And scoff at the chicken waivers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"