{"id":8265,"date":"2009-02-19T10:26:41","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T18:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=8265"},"modified":"2009-02-19T10:26:41","modified_gmt":"2009-02-19T18:26:41","slug":"bumping-into-people-at-limmudla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=8265","title":{"rendered":"Bumping Into People At LimmudLA"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Suissa nails it<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

But as the sessions piled up and I had to make more tough choices and miss more great classes, a funny thing happened: I started getting interrupted. As I went from class to class, I kept meeting more and more people.<\/p>\n

Soon the conversations themselves began to pile up. An impromptu talk about the state of Jewish education in Los Angeles with a macher from The Federation. Encounters with an Ashkenazi professor who is a world-renowned expert on the Sephardi world; with an educator in my neighborhood who gives bar and bat mitzvah lessons to autistic children; and with a filmmaker from Jerusalem who is studying and documenting the halachic dilemma of donating organs within the Orthodox community.<\/p>\n

I met a woman studying to be a Conservative rabbi who organizes Friday night services where the prayer melodies are always changing, a physician who prescribes natural substances to balance brain chemicals, a meditation teacher who thinks Jews do way too much thinking, especially at places like Limmud, and a successful television writer from Hollywood who once saw something on a license plate that encouraged him to become Torah observant.<\/p>\n

As I kept meeting more people and having these impromptu moments, it struck me that our lives are filled with great conversations that never happen. These are not conversations that call for a lunch or an appointment or even a phone call. They’re conversations that happen when you bump into people; the kind of conversations, perhaps, that you would see among people who live, shop and hang out in a close-knit neighborhood.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I did not even consult the program before signing up for LimmudLA. I went for the conversations, not the classes. The classes help set up a framework for meeting people with whom you share values. People were far friendlier than normal at LimmudLA, something I also notice in a good shul or in a yoga center. People feel safe and they open up. I do notice more reverence in a yoga center than at LimmudLA with respect to cell phones. No cell phone goes off when Guru Singh teaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Suissa nails it: But as the sessions piled up and I had to make more tough choices and miss more great classes, a funny thing happened: I started getting interrupted. As I went from class to class, I kept … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,602],"tags":[16320,11603,2471,16321,16322,16323],"class_list":["post-8265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-david-suissa","category-limmud","tag-bat-mitzvah-lessons","tag-brain-chemicals","tag-conservative-rabbi","tag-donating-organs","tag-friday-night-services","tag-meditation-teacher"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t