Day Nineteen

Happy Rosh Chodesh! I had three attendees this morning for services, and explained to them all about Kiddush HaChodesh and why that is so important to us...

By the way, the wind did a number on the tents...

This is right in front of our wing - the tent is obscuring our beautiful F-22

Another tent...

 Another filler day. Other than my presentation on Judaism, of course. Today was the class on World Religion - the goal was not a class detailing each faith, as much as getting the basics to be able to serve all troops in the field. I was asked to the component on Judaism and the Eastern Orthodox Priest did the component on Orthodox. The instructions were NOT to go into details. So I did a quick discussion on the three three branches (as 99% of the Jews they will encounter in the military are not Orthodox, so they need to know why Johnny doesn't do Kosher like Friedman did), a quick discussion on Kosher and explained MREs (Meal Ready to Eat) that are available to the troops, explained what we do with bodies and the importance of trying to keep the blood, and a quick synopsis of Shabbat and holidays and what to expect from the troops. That took 20 minutes. It was suggested that when we do our field exercise, that one night I do a Q&A to fill in the gaps (they all want to know what the deal is with Chassidim!). My Eastern Orthodox friend did not follow directions. I'll just leave it at that. What can I say - it was a LONG 20 minutes...

At lunch, I went over to the Army side and met the rabbi attending the Army chaplain school. She is a Reconstructionist/Renewal rabbi and we talked for about 20 minutes. I will be leading the service on Sunday and invited her to participate...

The day ended with a class on military funerals, which we capped off with a trip to the National Cemetery in Fort Jackson.

Chaplain Kenyon (well, half of Ch Kenyon) is facing us - some of the tombstones are in the background. It is a new cemetery (opened Jan 2009)

The guys

Upon return, I helped a friend move from his room in our building to another building, after which he gave me his car for the weekend. That means that I can drive myself to Chabad for Shabbos!