This most recent 5 minute summary takes me back to the very first time I saw you teach. At least I think it was the first time.
It was in a classroom at HUC. I can't remember the subject matter, but several things are so vivid in my memory that I can picture the room, you standing before us, and the light coming through the windows.
The first thing that struck me was your presence, your welcome: the ease in your connecting to us, demonstrating by your spontaneity and humor that we were to be seen as colleagues by a humble and not just students.
The second thing was what followed as you began to share and engage in study: You were not there to schmooze; you had an agenda, you had copies of text, you had not so much points to make as discoveries to offer. The openness and liveliness of your imagination to the text made me feel as if I had finally found someone from whom I could learn in the way that I like to learn, need to learn, that is playfully. But your playfulness, like mine, was a playing for keeps.
And the third thing I remember what was your willingness to form a relationship on the basis of affinity and love. You invited me to become a friend.
And here you still are, sharing your seasoned heart, irradiated by a scholar’s education and by a humble vulnerability (your story about your father’s birthday so intimate and appropriate), and offering a gentle, prophetic call to hope.
I am always moved by your dedicated heart; it gives off light. All I ask is that you take care of yourself.
always enlightening. hag sameach.
your agency is being expressed in such clarity and love
Amichai
This most recent 5 minute summary takes me back to the very first time I saw you teach. At least I think it was the first time.
It was in a classroom at HUC. I can't remember the subject matter, but several things are so vivid in my memory that I can picture the room, you standing before us, and the light coming through the windows.
The first thing that struck me was your presence, your welcome: the ease in your connecting to us, demonstrating by your spontaneity and humor that we were to be seen as colleagues by a humble and not just students.
The second thing was what followed as you began to share and engage in study: You were not there to schmooze; you had an agenda, you had copies of text, you had not so much points to make as discoveries to offer. The openness and liveliness of your imagination to the text made me feel as if I had finally found someone from whom I could learn in the way that I like to learn, need to learn, that is playfully. But your playfulness, like mine, was a playing for keeps.
And the third thing I remember what was your willingness to form a relationship on the basis of affinity and love. You invited me to become a friend.
And here you still are, sharing your seasoned heart, irradiated by a scholar’s education and by a humble vulnerability (your story about your father’s birthday so intimate and appropriate), and offering a gentle, prophetic call to hope.
I am always moved by your dedicated heart; it gives off light. All I ask is that you take care of yourself.
Peter