The Orthodox and Harry Potter

Michelle and I had a lovely Shabbat dinner with a local modern Orthodox family in Beersheva. Michelle had already dined with them two weeks ago but it was my first time meeting them. Moshe was originally from the United States (DC area, Chicago and upstate NY), Ruth I believe was English. They had five kids, four daughters and a young son who they treated like a king. Ruth's English mother also dined with us. They also had two cats and a dog. You could tell right away that they were liberal; they allowed their children to read Harry Potter, a definite no-no in many ultra-Orthodox homes I'm sure. Indeed, they had tons of English books around, as Ruth was very interested in literature and Moshe had even contemplated pursuing a PhD in English. Michelle chatted with the mother and daughters, I sat next to Moshe; we were the only men other than four year old Meir, who was alseep most of the time, or when awake, pretending he was some sort of animal. But this was good, because Moshe was very interesting. He actually got his MA and PhD at the University of Chicago Divinity school, where he studied under Jon Levenson, a brilliant scholar who would later teach me at Harvard. So this was a neat little connection. Moshe also had a reform background, and he believed that Judaism was a civilization, not simply a religion, even though he himself was of course very religious. Ruth is also an artist, and tons of her paintings decorated the house. So all in all, it was a fascinating experience, and the food was terrific. I'll probably be back there another Shabbat at some point.