Back better. Using the morning to work on my transfer to Philadelphia in August, then most of the weekend to seek my highest level of amusement. My back is less sore, still not quite right, though.

Rabbi probably does not pay attention to the implications of his own sermons. He spoke last week about how Rabbi Shlomo Riskind denied future Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan a Bat Mitzvah in the manner she preferred, citing Halacha. This future icon of American law diverted her interest, transferred from orthodoxy and observant. If a giant of rabbidom can dispatch a future giant of law, I suppose it is understandable that a rabbinical peasant of Rabbi Joel's electronic training can bypass Dr. Moe and Dr. Larry to make a decent physician such as myself contemputous of how Jewish law is best applied. For probably the third time since my Bar Mitzvah, I find myself heading toward looser observance. First as a teen I had some confrontations with the rabbi and the teen minyan director. Then after college graduation I relocated to the land of Jesuits for medical school. Both times I saw a return to stricter observance under different circumstances. This time I am truly contemptuous, not of the people or of the circumstances, but of what the people value. My one way ticket away from this would probably fall under rabbi generated attrition.