So I'm perusing the Judaica section at a bookstore and there's a teenage girl--shaved head, nose piercing--sitting crosslegged on the floor reading a book. We both browse in companionable silence for a while. There's a copy of Levinas's "Otherwise than Being," so I sit with it.
It's mostly a way to procrastinate about narrowing my giant-ass pile of like 951 books down to something manageable, an operation that always involves a lot of anguish and sacrifice.
She looks over & asks what I'm reading. I tell her and try to sum up Levinas in an approachable way, which, good luck--the dude's the philosopher the world needs right now but he's HARD WORK to parse so it isn't going to happen. She hasn't read Buber so I suggest she start there.
I know that I always hated adults asking what I was reading when I was a teenager--it felt invasive--so I nod at the book in her lap and smile and shrug and then go back to my book. Once I'm not looking at her she tells me what she's reading. "Heschel--a book about Shabbat."
"Oh," I say. "That's a classic. Really elegant, really beautiful thinking."
"Okay, but," she says, clearly not interested in my book review of something I read like 10 years ago, "Shabbat's female, right? There's all this bride stuff about it."
"Okay, but," she says, clearly not interested in my book review of something I read like 10 years ago, "Shabbat's female, right? There's all this bride stuff about it."
And I'm like, "yes--" and start to talk about the Shekhinah and mysticism and then shut myself up because the woman's reading Heschel so she doesn't need me 'splaining.
"Yes," I repeat, and this time put a period after it. "Okay, but there's also all this stuff about how ISRAEL, you know, everyone, the people, is a bride."
"Yes," I say, "that's a common metaphor..." I'm traveling and tired so I don't see where we're going with this.
"Yes," I say, "that's a common metaphor..." I'm traveling and tired so I don't see where we're going with this.
"Good," she says brightly, shuts the book, tucks it under her arm, and stands up. "Shabbat is a lesbian wedding." She gives me a fierce smile and strides off.
And I'm like, "Shine on, young Half-Price Books theologian." :-)
And I'm like, "Shine on, young Half-Price Books theologian." :-)
