Off To New Orleans

In case I don't get to post again until motzei Shabbat, I'm on my way to New Orleans for the CCAR conference (hashtag #ccar11). Somehow I got asked to blog the convention with some much smarter, more technologically savvy people than me, so you'll be able to follow along here starting on Sunday (it's not really live yet, so no peeking!).

CCAR is one of those things I look forward to every year, and not only because it's a chance to explore a new city and do a little networking (though that happens as well). It's a chance for me to recharge my spiritual and theological batteries. I get to gather with colleagues and longtime friends, people I respect tremendously, and catch up with them, study with them, commiserate with them, learn what's going on in their lives, daven with them. We share old jokes that still somehow manage to be fresh, trade 'war stories', and learn best practices. We get ideas for what to study or read next, sermon ideas, thoughts on adult ed courses to teach and programs to initiate. And for 'political' junkies like me there's opportunity aplenty to sit down and discuss the fate and direction of the movement and where we should go. It's more than a school reunion, more than camp for Jews. For me, it's a pilgrimage.

So, hope to see many of you there, and for those I don't, keep checking in!