We met this afternoon at the Italian Synagogue and museum in the City Center, and spent an interesting hour there. Within the museum there are several rooms of Judaic artifacts from centuries of Jewish life throughout Italy, including wedding dresses, synagogue elements, and even a dramatically painted hundred-year-old sukkah. The biggest room held the interior of an actual Italian sanctuary, transferred in its entirety in 1948 to Jerusalem. The ornate and historic room is actually in use today, maintaining the Italian Jewish traditions, but only on Saturdays, holidays and Rosh Hodesh.
After dinner at New Deli (delicious), we made our way to one of Dr. Aviva Zornberg's weekly talks about parashat hashavua. We've wanted to hear her unique outlook on the sedra for quite some time, and finally found the time and energy to do so. We were worried, however, because this week's parsha is all about the construction of the mishkan. However, Dr. Zornberg managed, without too much wrangling, to discover a kernel of psychological insight into Moses' behaviour, and expanded on that idea until we were listening to a discourse on the purpose of anxiety and impotence. The depth of her knowledge of both secular and religious text was impressive, and she wove it all together very nicely. We're definitely interested in going back.
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