Ponderings and Circumcisions

In the last two days I’ve officially begun my research.  I’ve gotten two of the rabbi's Yeshiva classes and three interviews under my belt, and I hope to get another class and at least one more interview done tomorrow.  So far, I’ve been coming up with more questions than answers.

That’s not to say I haven’t had some marvelous conversations. Each one has been fascinating, and has taken me in a very different direction.  I talked with Seth about the involvement of Semei Kakungulu (the Jewish high school) in the community, Samson about the birth of his Kenyan community (though I look forward to hearing what he calls the “real story” from his parents in a few weeks!) and Rachman, a musically-inclined Abayudaya university student, about the emerging role of Abayudaya youth in shaping the community.   We touched on the issues I’m hoping to tackle in my thesis in each interview, though I’ve come to wonder whether I will have enough to fill a thesis with the questions I noted in my previous post.  At the same time, I'm coming up with many other interesting avenues of exploration that could prove to be an equally fun thesis. I'm hoping I will somehow figure out how to integrate all of this into one grand idea...though I worry I may not figure it out, earliest, until I reach Kenya…but we’ll see! I’m excited to continue talking to people and will hopefully figure it out as I go along!

The rabbi's Yeshiva classes, several of which I attended last year, continue to be fascinating.  For those who are new--the rabbi teaches somewhat consistent classes on weekday mornings to several young men poised to lead their own communities.  Some are from far-flung communities like the one in Ghana and Apache in the north of Uganda, and others will simply head to other of the more local communities to lead them once the finish their studies.  

Yesterday we mainly went through the High Holiday service (that’s Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur)— which has been the focus of the classes for some time as these holidays are in September—though it ended with some interesting discussion emerging from a portion of the service dealing with sexual immorality.  Today, we began with the same passage, examining a line which instructs Israel to “live” by the laws of the Torah and looking at the Biblical story of Jonah—and what it teaches about teshuvah and compassion. The rabbi reiterated his somewhat unusual notion that God cannot create anything "bad"; rather, it is humans who can instill things with "bad-ness."  In a move I had not seen before (though in the five total classes I’ve attended over the last year that means little) the rabbi assigned his students a paper, for which they were meant to prove the character of God from different Biblical stories—with the main question being “compassionate or wrathful?” No small question…

Outside of my research fun, I took a beginner’s break yesterday to attend a bit of the Bugisu coming-of-age ceremony, which is apparently is one of the biggest shindigs on the Ugandan calendar.  The partying began toward the beginning of July, though it’s coming to its grand finale tomorrow. When we arrived at the main festival site, we saw several of the boys who will be circumcised (OK, you probably knew that’s what it was) being covered with a millet-cassava alcohol and flour while dressed in traditional beads and accessories, beginning a three-day leadup to tomorrow’s circumcision.  To display their new manhood, they jumped continuously and did various manly dances.  [For reference, these boys are mostly between 12 and 20, though there seems to be a wide variance in what age one can take part in the ceremony—it happens, I was told, when one “feels” ready to be a man.]  Later that evening, there was a similar ceremony for a local boy right near SK high school.  (The ones who had it at the central site are apparently the descendants of the family that owns the land.) I’ve heard the presidents of Uganda and Kenya will both be speaking at the circumcision ceremony tomorrow and I’m tempted to stop by with some Abayudaya…we’ll see if I make it!

Night night, and if I don't post tomorrow, shabbat shalom!