"To everything there is a season..." (Ecclesiastes)+

Had to get up early today in order to get to a baby naming service at Congregation Shaarei Kodesh in Boca. The baby's name is Eliana Rebecca Cohen, and the parents are Michelle and Yaniv. Since the baby already had a name, I guess the religious service was used to confirm it--or let God know there was another girl in the world who perhaps like many other Jewish girls has inherited a shopping gene, or a cell phone gene, or a tattoo gene, or a ring in the belly button gene. We'll find out shortly.



This synagogue was located in a strip mall in a storefront where I always thought it should be called a "shul". This congregation calls itself "conservative", but the shabat service went on and on forever and ever. I kept thinking of the Eveready battery rabbit with the drum. I would hate to attend an orthodox service if this one was conservative. It was stand up. Sit down. Stand up. Sit down. The torah reading happened to be "Ecclesiastes," a most beautiful sermon which I consider "literature". I consider the Bible to be great literature, written my men...and not the word of God. Sue me. None of this service was in English...Hebrew all the way. Some of the congregants looked like they knew what they were doing, but I sincerely doubt that those who were reading from the book understood what they were chanting. When I was bar mitzvahed years ago, I was able to read Hebrew, but I didn't have a clue of the meaning.

When the service finally ended there was a "kiddish" sponsored by Michelle and Yaniv in honor of their daughter. Tables of lox, whitefish, bagels, tomatoes, cucumbers, fruit, and other ethnic food I didn't recognize. The chocolate cake was excellent.

Well, here's an addenda I have refrained from printing until now. A prominent Communist named Rudolph complained that it was raining. When contradicted by his wife, he sternly replied, "Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear."