Friday evening

Most Friday nights I go to Robin for Shabat dinner. It's a lovely way to end the week with blessings over the wine and bread (challah that Robin makes), blessings for the children when they are present, a lovely dinner and a chance to catch up on the doings of the week. Robin and Steve went out of town for the weekend so I was on my own last night. I joined some new friends and went to services at Rodef Shalom, one of the oldest Jewish Reform Temples in the country.

I was raised as a Conservative Jew, although that, along with many other conservative things, didn't take. In spite of the fact I seldom go to services it seemed strange to me to have someone playing a piano. No instruments, except the human voice, are used in Conservative congregations. And, although the words were the same, many of the melodies seemed more like show tunes, Andrew LLoyd Weber, than the chants or middle eastern melodies I grew up with.

After the service I went to dinner with my friends, to Yokoso! aJapanese steak house. This not very Japanese. The food was OK. The performance by the cook was entertaining. The conversation was good. All in all, a different kind of Friday evening.