Today is the first Shabbat after Tisha B'Av (see
Tisha B'Av, Monday, July 19. 2010) and is called
Shabbat Nachamu. The name comes from the first word's of the week's
Haftorah passage:
Nachamu nachamu ami ("Comfort, comfort my people"). It's a welcome comfort, like being held in your mother's arms after crying.
Then, a few days later, [I understand on this Monday coming] comes the joyous celebration of
Tu B'Av (literally "the 15th of Av") .... Tu B'Av offers the first glimpse of autumn, when the temperature drops and the weather becomes more moderate.
- from
Judaism for Dummies, p 315
This day,
Shabbat Nachamu, the second book that I ordered on Judaism has arrived - ordered on the recommendation of the friend that I met at the synagogue (which can be given the Yiddish name
shul, from the German word for school). The friend is in the process of converting from Christianity to Judaism.
The second book is
To Be a Jew: A Guide to Jewish Observance in Contemporary Life, selected and Compiled from the SHULHAN ARUKH and RESPONSA literature and providing a rationale for the laws and traditions, by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin (Basic Books, New York, 1972). I look forward to reading it.
At the evening
Tisha B'Av service last Monday this friend introduced me to a local lad who has completed the process of conversion and was welcomed into the fellowship of the Belfast
shul last Shabbat where he performed a little dance in celebration. This convert's religious name is
Akiva ben Abraham - compare the forename of the great Chess Master Akiba Ruibinstein "the greatest stylist who ever lived" e.g. in
Zugzwang Part 2, Monday, May 3. 2010.
Akiva attended the Shabbat Nachamu today and introduced me to his father (religious name Reuven ben Abraham - all converts take 'ben Abraham' rather than the name of their natural father). Amazingly, Reuven was an ordained Congregationalist Minister for 20 years, ministering in Banbridge and Spamount, Co Down; and he was attached to the Faith Mission at one time as well. So I asked whether he might know my friend David McKee who began his Christian work within Faith Mission in the South of Ireland. Again I was astounded to learn that Reuven did remember David, calling him "an inspired speaker".
On David McKee see -
A Swiss-German tutorial, Tuesday, October 31. 2006;
Moderator, Saturday, February 10. 2007;
Heaven, by C.S. Lewis, Friday, April 27. 2007;
Wurmbrand, Thursday, November 1. 2007; and
An important address, Thursday, May 22. 2008.
David told me that he became a Christian during or shortly after the second World War. His first Christian work was with the Faith Mission. With another, he would tour rural parts of the South of Ireland. They would set up their moveable premises during the day and then pray, perhaps for much of the afternoon that people would attend their evangelistic service in the evening. Sometimes no-one would show and David had had the experience of preaching to an empty hall.
David no longer comes to the Leisure Centre. Formerly he wopuld cycle the 6 miles from Donaghadee, where he lives, to Bangor, then cycle back. With age, he then drove in both directions. When I knew him, he drove and then only attended the "Health Suite" - sauna, Turkish back, spa pool and plunge pool. Today he doesn't come to the Leisure Centre at all. I saw David recently walking along the Coastal Path. He told me that he reads the New Testament in the original Greek every year.