1st Blessing

Tonight, I was at the ordination ceremony for the new rabbis from the Zeigler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University. I was caring for a crying baby for most of the time.

After the ceremony, there was a reception where the 8 new rabbis could schmooze with the hundreds of friends and family that showed up to cheer them on. I went around to say my "congratulations" and "mazel tovs".

Then I had an idea. I went up to one of the new rabbis and asked for a blessing. He said one for me and then I said the Shehechianu blessing with him because it was his first blessing as a rabbi. (In Judaism, the Shehechianu is said whenever one does something important for the first time.)

Then I found another new rabbi and did the same thing.

Then I found another new rabbi and had him bless my daughter Nesya.

The fourth new rabbi I saw said I was too late...he had already said his first blessing as a rabbi.

The fifth new rabbi said that he was going to vomit. He wasn't playing along. He was a party-pooper.

At this point, my daughter needed to leave the gathering, so I left too. I did, however, elicit the first blessing from 3 different rabbis tonight. I think I'll try this next year...

P.S. One of the rabbis who I got blessed by was Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, the first Conservative Rabbi of Uganda.