a Pint of Bitter, please

My 11 September posting (funny how it does not have such a zing to it when one writes the date correctly... Try talking about 11-9 and see how many heartfelt reactions you get) was not the best piece of teshuvah with which I could have gone into Rosh HaShanah. I did not think about the fact that it may have been a little bit too harsh until much later in the day after I had posted it.

On the other hand, I got published by one of my favorite bloggers, this guy. (Note the salute to Ashkenazi seli'hot later on in the comments.)

It was not kind of me to mix reminiscences of the terrorist attack with my personal condemnation of mixed, pluralistic Jewish education. It was not necessary for me to mention the personal life of the principal, whose methods I disagreed with for entirely different reasons. And you know what they say: "Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?"

...But I don't know if that rule applies to blogging. In fact, I do not know if that rule has any basis in halakhah whatsoever.

It is just that, for me, the world that began on that day was a mixture of the sadness and paranoia that we Americans got into, plus my own dive into the deep end of a big, complicated, and somewhat religious Jewish community. It is impossible for me to tell the story of that year of teaching without invoking the terrorism. And it is impossible for me to tell the story of 11 September without mentioning that additional layer of epic disappointment.

So let us take a look at the bright side. If that year had been successful, I may have continued full-time in secondary Jewish education. Or I may have gone back into academia, or into some other career. In any of those cases, my Jewish growth would likely have been stunted incredibly. I had to hit bottom, really rock bottom as far as my employment and family relationship were concerned, to reexamine life to the extent that I did. Without that experience, I may not have decided so quickly to come to Israel. Without that decision, there is truly little chance I would have looked into yeshivah study (and now that I know what it's about, I can confidently say it would have been a stupid thing not to consider). Without deciding to go to yeshivah in Jerusalem, I may not have met my future wife.

Those three milestones occurred within about a week of each other, and in that order.

So, really I should be grateful for that year's experience, right?