Shalom brothers and sisters

Last night at the CCC we had the most wonderfully interesting guest speaker...his name is Ira Flax, and he is a Jewish Rabbi. I met him while on Sheppard Air Force Base at a chaplain's luncheon. He is a chaplain there - the first one of Jewish faith since 1969!!! (that shows how many Jewish folks we have in Wichita Falls, TX!) I tell people that I had lunch with a Priest and a Rabbi - which sounds like the beginning of a joke. However, it is the honest truth, and both men were positively delightful! They both have an extremely good sense of humor (my sides hurt after that lunch) and both were very willing to talk about anything. I have since had the priest (who is a fellow Nebraskan) celebrate Mass with us at the CCC, and now the Rabbi had shared his faith and tradition with my students. I know little to nothing about the Jewish faith. For whatever reason, I've never known anyone personally who was Jewish. I found it interesting that like Catholicism, their beliefs are grounded in both scripture (Torah) and church teachings/tradition. Yet they do not have a hierarchy. What a Rabbi says goes at his synagogue. Rabbi Flax answered any and every question my students asked, from their reasons for not believing that Jesus was any different from Abraham or Moses to why and how they eat kosher. He shared his own advice to all of us who plan to raise children as Christians - it centered around Santa Claus and Jesus - and was VERY thought provoking. Ask me if you want the whole story! I could have listened to him for hours - it was so fascinating. And I don't know if my students know how lucky they were to have the opportunity to have him join us - after all with so few Jewish persons in the Falls and Rabbis coming once in a blue moon - it is quite amazing that the event even took place! (incidentally - Rabbi Flax said that one might wonder what HE did to be the next Rabbi stuck in Wichita Falls - especially as this is his last stop before retirement - he joked that it must be his own little purgatory!) Thank you my new friend for making the CCC a stop on your journey of life!