My friend Lauren and I arrived forty minutes late for the Chabad event Monday night because we got lost.
***
When we got to the Chabad House, Rabbi
Yehuda Hadjadj was talking about the Torah portion, Vayeira.
Within his lecture, Hadjadj explained that it is wrong to bless someone to live over the age of 120, because Methuselah, who lived to be 969, did not die peacefully whereas Moses died naturally in God’s grace. Hadjadj jokingly remarked that if you wish someone to live much longer at their 80th birthday, they would curse you.
The portion also said that Abraham, when he was circumcised, was in a lot of pain, especially on the third day. Because he was so kind to everyone, God decided to make it a hot day so no one could walk and Abraham could rest inside his tent. But because he wanted to have visitors chat with him, he refused to go inside his tent. So instead, God sent down three angels in the guise of men: Rafael, who healed his pain from his circumcision, Gabriel, and Michael. Michael told Abraham his wife Sarai would be pregnant with a son despite the fact she was 90+ years of age.
At the closing of the Torah discussion, Hadjadj said that studying Torah is like uniting yourself with God because you forget that you’re thinking. “You can’t differentiate your mind and the Torah,” he explained.
***
Somehow the conversation segued into one of the girls’ mace cans on her key chain. She told us that 7 months ago, she was chased in an underground parking lot by a creep and had to run several flights of stairs in stilettos. I can barely walk in wedge pumps, so I was impressed.
She went to the security booth and told them that she was being harassed by a creepy guy. At first they didn’t believe her and she yelled at them. Sure enough, through the surveillance camera, they could see the guy puttering around. And even more creepy, it was very dark down there despite the fact it was during the day.
She also told us she was called a dirty Jew in class once, and that she was told vehemently by a random classmate that, “Its too bad the [Nazis] didn’t kill you all!”
***
I talked to a few guys there about the differences between JAM (Jewish Awareness Movement) and Chabad. Adam Hyman of San Diego State University asserted “it’s an attitude — JAM wants to impose Judaism on you and Chabad exposes you to Judaism,” adding “JAM wants to send you out of your community while Chabad wants to build a community.”
***
Another guy jokingly said that he wanted everyone to know that, “I think that the whole Shomer Negiah thing is bullshit.”
The guy was the only one there who wasn’t Orthodox. When I asked him what he was, he said he refuses to be labeled.
The guy also said that JAM was the Lubavitch movement to secular Jews. Because once the students go to Israel, the religous leaders attempt to brainwash the students and the intention is perform outreach, or kiruv in Hebrew.
***
Chabad seems a lot of fun from what I heard from the other guys. I heard that the guys make kosher sushi, and today they drank kosher beer…Corona.

We have a lunar addition to Jewish life here at UCSD. Every month on Rosh Chodesh, a few Jewish women gather in the Women’s Center to discuss important issues troubling them. I went last night, where within the cozy atmosphere of postmodernist vagina paintings and lactating tables, women lit candles representing themselves and talked about marriage, graduate school, dating, dreams and goals. While eating cake and munching on grapes, participants also recited poetry in Hebrew or English, and made arts and crafts. Next month’s project will be to make a mezzuzah. It was quite fun.

I arrived at the International Center here in UCSD on Friday as Hillel dinner was wrapping up to meet with Michael Hirshman. The editor of the Triton, Hirshman described his magazine as an “alternative publication trying to bring two different things: a Newsweek at UCSD equivalent to the LA Times and the Guardian , but more in-depth, like Newsweek.” Hirshman said the Triton will be published one or two times a quarter, like its more right-wing rival, the California Review .
I was interested to learn more about Hirshman and his mix of Judaism and conservative politics. Triton Board member Sonia Rosner told me that Hirshman leads the Conservative Jewish services once a week, which Hirshman humbly stated is more like “pretending” to lead. Showing another area of interest in Judaism, I notice he is in a group that espouses pride in the Hebrew language. Hirshman’s opinion on why there are more liberal Jews than conservative ones is that “basically Jews have been persecuted and the left is more open and welcoming to Jews historically.”
I ask Hirshman if he’s received any negative feedback about his publication, and he asserts he hasn’t. The only remotely-negative feedback, he says, contains suggestions on how he can improve on the design or layout of the Triton.
Rosner says she’s politically-moderate but a registered Democrat. She is a bioengineering major and her boyfriend Daniel Gelman — also on the Triton’s board — is a biochemistry major.
I talk to an associate editor who is too shy to go on record. He is registered with the Libertarian Party.
I ask Hirshman if he’s a traditional Jew because traditional Jews are more conservative. “You know, I try to be traditional, but don’t consider myself perfect,” he replies.

So far I have seen an interesting Jewish star in Muir College…made of rocks. I’m going to be looking into this.