A busy week...

As the days get longer, suddenly afternoon services at shul are within reach. With services at 4:50, I only have to leave work at 4:30 to get there. That makes it quite tempting to sneak off a couple of minutes early, although I only made it once this week. On Thursday, I arranged my schedule to cut out early, coming in early in the morning and getting all the vital stuff off my desk. But in late afternoon, a crunch project came across, and I was still working through it as sundown approached. Missing my chance to sneak out, I was saved by a call from my boss tracking me down. It was time to pray. After finishing, I explained to one of my other co-workers that I had been doing. She was understanding.

Of course one of the most popular levels of religous discourse continues to be around Kosher. Not too surprising working for the largest food distributor in America. We had a little Super Bowl Snack event Thursday where the topic of conversation was which of the prepared treats would be kosher. None of them. Even though the base products where, the preparations had made them non-kosher. But the pinnacle was lunch on Friday. In honor of significant work anniversaries of two of my coworkers, our group went out to lunch. At a kosher restaurant. So not only did I get to eat, but I got to play host as well. Because apparently they thought as a Jew I would know what to order. I hoped they realized that there is no difference in the food. That is the true secret of kosher. It's not a different type of food, it just excludes certain types.

The trick remained saying the lengthy blessings after the meal in front of the large company. I debated not eating bread to avoid the conflict, but ultimately, that's what I wanted from the menu. So I basically prayed as people started getting up. Didn't generate any commotion, although somebody did ask me a questions while I was in the middle. Fortunately, I was towards the end, and I was able to finish before answering. It all works out. And I got a free lunch.