So, with Halloween coming up, that must mean that the Jewish holiday season has just wrapped up. On the eve of the last of the holidays (Simchas Torah – hebrew for celebrating with the Torah) I was at my girlfriend’s place and heard a smoke/CO alarm going off somewhere nearby. After trying to deal with the annoyance by turning up the TeeVee I decide to find the source of the alarm. Not because I thought someone was in danger, no, just because I wanted to go to bed soon.
After running around the floor above and below us, I perched up on the windowsil to realize that alarm was coming from an apartment much further down from us on the 11th floor. So, down the elevator I went to the first floor and started my way up. I heard something on 5, it was louder on 6 and finally I found it on 7. Hooray I thought to myself, one of my program-mates. She wasn’t in, so I was headed back upstairs to send her an email when I ran into said student. Upon informing her of the alarm I was asked, “Do you want to be useful?”
Translation, “I can’t take the battery out until tomorrow evening, would you do it for me, gentile?”
It’s the weirdest thing to me coming from very secular and very, very gentile Oregon. But very fascinating (and mildly irritating when you want coffee during Passover) to be so submerged in a culture/religion. It goes far beyond knowing what the rules of Kosher and Parve are. I never could have imagined that I would long for the days of taking classes and getting all of the High Holidays off. Maybe I’ll actually get myself to a Seder dinner this year.
