This afternoon, while at Tali’s tea party in her Chabad-House apartment—delicately lit with the red radiance of the ner tamid—Anthony invited me and Naomi to see a movie tonight. Although neither of us was available to go with him, Naomi asked which movie. He replied “Smoking Asses” which left both of us confused. Eventually we discovered that the three of us were thinking different things:
- Naomi, being American, had human bottoms on her mind;
- I, Australian, was thinking donkeys with cigarettes;
- He, French, had mispronounced the word and actually meant gambling: “Smokin’ Aces“.
What do you wear in -20°C but calm, partially sunny weather? Long underwear, or not? Argh!
Yes, I am still in Montreal till April. I am here for a second semester, so if you happen to be visiting this side of the earth (and, for instance, your initials are JM) you should give me a call on
+1-514-659-4506
And don’t leave a voice message. I still can’t check them and even when Fido resets my access code it doesn’t work, and I’m waiting for them to get back to me…
On Tuesday night I got to spend a romantic evening with my girlfriend, Naomi. We stayed up all night, side by side, until dawn broke… underneath the library, writing papers. (more…)
December 1. First day of a new season, at least by Australian accounts. And certainly too by the accounts of Montreal weather. It has hardly snowed since the day when I reported it, and I’ve been repeatedly admonished for calling that snow in the first place. (more…)
One of the first things I did when I got to McGill was find out what singing groups I could join. After all, I had decided a couple of years ago that 2006 would be the year for singing: having been involved in Hineni, people would ask me (mostly after synagogue), “so what are you doing with that voice of yours Joel?” and I replied, “too busy… after Hineni”. So this year was set aside for singing. I led a lot more services in synagogue than ever before, got a couple of paid jobs as a chazzan, and joined two choirs in Sydney: the Sydney Jewish Choral Society (finally capitulating to Warren), and the Madrigal Society (under the leadership of Anthony who I encountered regularly, although he gave me no pressure to join). I enjoyed them a lot. I was even a little surprised to do so. (more…)
I have a decision to make. I have confirmed that it is technically possible for me to stay in Montreal for another semester. After all, four months studying here is not so long to take in the opportunities of the area (seeing Montreal, Canada, North-Eastern America), and staying longer will let me see more, do more, solidify relationships, yield to people’s cries not to go so soon, and do the other half of a fascinating course in the History of Jewish Bible Interpretation… And now is the only time I can do it. (more…)
One advantage of being in North America is that it doesn’t cost inordinate sums of money to bring famous intellectuals to speak to an audience. So while the Jewish community finds itself with one esteemed guest after another here, and I heard from Adin Steinsaltz a couple of weeks ago (he came to Sydney last year but I missed him), tonight I had the opportunity to hear Elie Wiesel speak. The holocaust survivor, acclaimed author, social activist, Boston University professor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate lectured and took questions on the topic of “Building a moral society: the urgency of hope”. (more…)
A couple of weeks ago (yes, this post is late) Keren for the first time experienced a real party for All Hallows Eve. Invited by a British exchange student and, although in Sydney, found herself surrounded only by foreigners in much more elaborate dress (after all, she also has Purim to dress up on) and pumpkins cut like from a cartoon. Halloween’s simply not a big deal in Australia, and you don’t realise what you’re missing, or not. (more…)
