In which Chana meets with the Rabbi...;

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In which Chana meets with the Rabbi…;

Okay. Just got home, so I’m going to do this in bullet-points now, so I remember it:

He is very sweet. He listened attentively.
He asked me how all this happened. I had emailed my synopsis, but it was definitely different hearing myself SAY it out loud.
He asked what I do for work, and where.
I talked a little about the timeframes, and about the throughs I had had about not being able to go home (Dublin) to live again after conversion.
Then we talked about what I’d been doing — learning-wise, practice-wise, etc.
I think he wanted to get a feel for what I knew the ins-and-outs of (trust me, there is VERY little I don’t have at least a vague awareness of. To the point of that I can tell immediately when [Ima-extraordinaire] is niddah).
He wanted to make it clear that it’s a rigorous lifestyle.
He asked me what I had been reading.
We talked about how I had grown up.
In a very tsnius, roundabout way he checked if I was dating anyone and gave me a subtle “warning” about doing so while going through the process.
He wanted to know my plan, life-wise, for the next few years and how settled I am here.
He told me it could be a hard road, and that it could be frustrating when you couldn’t see the end in sight.
He doesn’t know a lot about the Boston beit din, because he’s only been here a few months, but is going to do some research. And some RCA research too. He said to email if I didn’t hear from him in the next week.
He told me he was glad I reached out.
He told me to keep doing what I’m doing.

Oh, goodness.

I hope he could tell I was sincere.

I had a couple of mind-blank moments. He could probably tell I was nervous.

Somebody, just tell me to dunk already, okay? Okay. It’s fine. I know the brachot.