An impromptu class

בס"ד

Every class has its rules. In Navi (Topics in the Prophets) class we sing the first and last five minutes, and at any time in between. In Maimer (Chassidis discourse) class we tell jokes to ease into the lesson. And in Bayis Yehudi (Jewish Homes), we all come in expecting to hear the wise advice from the head of a very special Jewish home - Mrs. Kaplan, my host mother.

Today was different. In walks our Halacha (Practical Jewish Law) teacher, a rabbi who looks anywhere between the age of 15-19. He is, however, married with 5 kids. Maybe that gives him credentials to teach this class. But whatever he had - it was much different than a typical Bayis Yehudi class.

He walks in with the question sheet Mrs. Kaplan bases her lecture on. Six or seven open-ended questions we discuss, on the customs in the Jewish dating world. We laugh and giggle at the fact that this Rabbi is holding her sheet. "Question 1: what age is appropriate to start dating?" A pause.

"99." He sets the tone for the class. We still have an hour and a half left of class, but I don't think we returned to that page. After hearing everything from, "you wouldn't date if you knew what was going on in a guy's head" to a lesson on men's fashion, we finally got to the story telling. We heard about the Rabbi's first date with his wife - that he had no questions to ask her about herself. He recalled with a smile that on the second date he just asked her all the questions she asked him on the first. :)

The story that sticks out in my head is that of a young boy who's parent tell not to marry a certain girl after meeting her a few times (maybe once). Usually parents don't make such demands, but he went along with it. He eventually got married to another woman, and she to another man. Years later, he entered into an old age home, a lonely widower. But he met that girl, now a widow herself, and then finally got married. :D

I am not sure if this class is considered one of the Adar jokes, but it was definently funny!