Yesterday I was the Seminary substitute teacher since Jeremy Walton was out of town. It was fun to be back, even temporarily. Starting your day with the high schoolers is always a treat. We have really cute youth in the Los Gatos Seminary. I’m so impressed with how valiant they are despite all the pressures in high school to party and drink, etc.
This year the youth are studying the Old Testament which is one of my favorite years of curriculum because of the great stories. They’re currently in Exodus so they’re learning all about Moses.
Rabbi Harold Kushner has a book called Overcoming Life’s Disappointments, that is a great book to read for insight into Moses. We often forget that the same Moses who parted the Red Sea and worked so many miracles also suffered many disappointments. Moses deals with frustration and rejection. A lot. He fails but perseveres. And he isn’t bitter.
Rabbi Kushner believes that Moses is a misunderstood man. He thinks one of the great lessons we can learn from Moses is that we can fail but not consider ourselves failures.
I got off on a Moses tangent (in Seminary and here too) but you can see how I’m missing out, not teaching regularly. But Seminary was a good ride while it lasted and subbing yesterday just reminded me that I was lucky to have it for a calling for a few years.
