Greeted as a Jew

Today, I walked over to the library. I thought that the most memorable thing about that walk would be the book I picked up by Rabbi Harold Kushner, How Good Do We Have To Be?, which I’m already half done with and which has brought me to tears of relief and recognition several times. (More on that in a later post.)

But what I’ll remember about today was that a gentleman parked on the street called out to me from his car window, “Shalom! Good Shabbes!” (although that’s odd since it’s not Shabbes – eh), and then told me that he was surprised – he didn’t see many people walking around my town wearing a yarmulke (his word) in public.

We chatted for a minute or two. I explained that I was in the process of conversion, and he told me where he goes to shul (a reform shul in San Pedro), and then we bade each other Shalom and I walked on.

I got greeted as a fellow Jew for the first time by a Jew I didn’t know, who had no reason to beyond seeing my kippah and recognizing me as one of the Tribe.

For some reason, to me, that’s really neat.