A rabbi starts packing

God willing, on August 25th I will be getting on a plane to Israel for a two month visit. What does a rabbi bring with him/her on a trip? Books!

To the right is my first cut of books I had in the office that I think I'd like to take with me. I have at least as many books at home that I've picked out. And I haven't even begun to think about the bibles and other holy books I'd like with me.

Now, in my defense, I've made a commitment to my supervisor to spend these two months doing the reading and writing I need to do for the next step in my certification process as a chaplaincy supervisor. Most of the books to the right are ones that might help me with writing the papers that are a part of that.

But, it will be quite an effort to winnow the books down. I'm limiting myself to 50 lbs. of books, which means maybe 40 or so volumes. . . . I just counted. There's 39 books just in the two stacks in the picture! . . Clearly I have a lot of work to do. :)