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I looked down, unsure how to answer.

"I'm not sure. I mean, part of me finds the faith a little hard
to believe, wonders if it would really make any difference in my life, and
yet-"

"You left with more questions than you came in with."

I shook my head. Rabbi Blatt looked perplexed, but never
removed his gentle smile.

"Well, not exactly," I said.

I tried looking further down, attempting perhaps to stare right
through the earth and to the other side.

"This is going to sound really stupid."

Rabbi Blatt nodded, urging me to continue.

"There was this beautiful woman who sat in front of me, and
ever since I saw her I haven't been able to get her out of my mind."

Rabbi Blatt's gentle smile grew wider, and took on the very
slightest character of mischief

"Be fruitful and multiply;' he said again, chuckling quietly
beneath this bit of divine wisdom. I couldn't help but to chuckle myself,
amused at this warm, elderly Jewish man with what was clearly a keen
sense of humor.

"Pat, I want you to listen very carefully: this is not, in fact, the
first time I've heard this. A bored young agnostic walks into a syna-
gogue, sees a beauriful jewess and is immediately stricken with love, and
for some reason takes it for some sort of spiritual awakening. It's hap-
pened more than a few times in my life, and there hasn't been a single
time where I've thought it was prudent to give anything but this for
guidance: love is beautiful, and lust is natural, but these are things that
have to be controlled, and taken seriously-and, I'm sorry, but a man

has no place in temple if he isn't here, first and foremost, to understand

God."
"I know," I said, still staring through the Earth to China. "Bu~,

for some reason, I was ...drawn back here." At that point I felt extremely
embarrassed, and although I didn't want to leave, I felt as though I had
done something terribly wrong. I began pulling on my jacket and get-

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