Hochma

Is it a bad sign when your reading for school and your reading for pleasure are the same thing?

I help out in a little cafe area at church and don't always get to make it into the service the nights I'm volunteering. So I usually take some reading material just in case. This last weekend I brought The Mekhilta De Rabbi Ishmael. Kim, who was working with me that night, saw it and said "Awww, you have to do school work?" And I foolishly said, "No, this is pleasure reading."

Then several minutes of good hearted mockery followed. (I must say that Jaime, my loving and supportive wife, was right there enjoying every second of it.)

But I had my moment of glory that night. Yes, I showed them. Because the pastor was talking about wisdom that night and kept mispronouncing the word in Hebrew. (I was actually in the service and cringed every time he said "hochma" as "hawchma.") I'm usually very laid back when it comes to stuff like this. But then I imagined1,800 people (that generally attend services over the weekend) going around town saying "hawchma" and I just couldn't take it. Is this anal of me? Absolutely. Did I decide to let it slide? Absolutely not!

After service I was once again in the cafe and Pastor Drew came walking up to the counter. The first thing I said was not "Hi, Drew. How are you," it was "DREW, IT'S HOCHMA!" Everyone laughed and he acknowledged that he was going to ask me about the pronunciation before service but forgot. Then it seemed like every person from that service was coming up to the counter asking "Now, how do you say it?"

So maybe it wasn't a moment of glory, but at least at that moment a lot of people were appreciating my nerdiness--even if it was just for help with pronunciation.

(Does this story make me seem desperate for attention? Maybe that's why scholars write books.)