NEILAH CARLEBACH!

בס"ד


Tamuz 18

She is possibly one of the sweetest people I have ever encountered. We've been spending some close time together off & on the past few days. Today we were chatting at the official Kallah opening (which was hilarious, as usual, mostly due to R' Jack Gabriel's antics & Deb Kolodny's humour. I told Neilah that I'd grown up in BC & she countered with having grown up in Toronto. She smiled & shouted, "Canucks!" & we high-fived each other.
:D
Turns out, after all my student were seated by me, I had the pleasure of welcoming 2 re-takers! One professional sculptor from Brazil & a Chicagoan who each took my class last Kallah, 2 years ago, & wanted to tiptoe through the midrash on the alefbet with me once again! :)

After this celebrations came the Teachers Ethics Meeting. This is a mandatory session which is both a "don't sleep with your students" reminder & a "watch out for all the students with personality disorders".
I'm always so grateful for these exercises. I am not practiced at dealing with inappropriate behaviour in a way that redirects the energy kindly.
R' Goldie Milgram gave an example of what sort of boundary-crossing behaviour had already been displayed at the registration table:
A student came retracing her steps looking for her water bottle (which they give away at Kallah with your name on it), but instead of her own, she came across the water bottle of a teacher who had left theirs behind.
"Oh, well if this teacher left their water bottle behind, then I guess I'm not such a bad person" she began. Then she went on, "I wonder how much I could get for this water bottle on eBay." She examined the bottle more closely & saw that it wasn't full. "Hey, if this teacher drank from their water bottle & then I drink from it, it would be ike we kissed."

Unfortunately, any kind of open, loving, welcoming, ecstatic, inclusive, charismatic event will attract traumatised people with unhealthy boundaries. So we teachers were cautioned against the type of students who can suck the life out of you & still demand more.

The smikha ceremony this evening that Reb Zalman led for his eldest son, Sholom, was very moving & quite colourful. I just wish that Sholom didn't look so much like Steve Martin. It made it hard for me to focus on his very sincere drush on Tiqun Olam, because I was on the edge of my seat waiting for him to pull out a banjo & fluffy pink bunny ears & sing a bayou song about Torah.
Yes, I'm mischevous & irreverent but I generally keep it to myself.

I introduced myself & Joel to the lovely Lisa, another fummie who found herself at Kallah. She's a journalist who wrote a bit about me in an article here.
As we strolled her to her room that night & stood 'round the entrance to Hickory Hall, we made the acquaintance of Billy Yalowitz - The Jew with the Friendliest Name on the Planet. He had an ude. We were all suitably impressed.

Good night.