Miscelaneous Jew

Today we had our group lunch in the cafeteria. I was smart. I abandoned my peanut butter and jelly sandwich in favor of the pasta I had made for breakfast. This way I would have a shorter blessing to make after my meal. Usually you don't want to minimize the blessings you say...by nature, they are an opportunity to praise Gd, which we can seize. But when you're eating with three other people, who either abandon you alone at the table while you "talk to yourself" reading from a little book or must sit and wait for you to finish, the short version comes in handy.

I also got into a discussion about the confidentiality of confessional and pastor/rabbinical conversations. I told my co-worker that there is no Jewish belief that such conversations should be protected from a court of law. This conversation also evolved into the issue of religious groups and their exemption from general discrimination rules. We both pondered the free speech/non-discrimination implications of these distinctions. Overall, very informative.

Finally, I wanted to write about an awkward situation that comes up pretty much every day. Multiple times. Saying Berachos (prayers) leaves me in a difficult position. During prayers, I cannot respond to anything around me. This is most difficult when saying the Beracha after using the washroom (we praise Gd for even the simplest of daily activities, out of respect for the profound complexity of these biological wonders). The Beracha is fairly long, and by nature, I'm not in a private place (it is not respectful to say prayers in the washroom itself, leaving me in the hallway). So I must find the locations where I am least likely to run into somebody on the way. Also, when I wash my hands before eating bread for lunch (as the Priests did in the temple to assure ritual cleanliness before dealing with the holy sacrifices), I cannot talk until after eating the bread. But I must wash down the hall in the break room. And the blessing for the bread is ideally made in the same place where one will eat. Hence, I have a little walk from where I wash my hands to where I will eat. Also, making it difficult to avoid ignoring anybody along the way. Often, I'll fill a cup with water, and walk quickly with my eyes on the cup as if I'm afraid of it spilling. This averts eye contact, which avoids a need to acknowledge somebody passing. Of course, I'll probably be lucky enough to walk past the CEO during this time...