Baalabatish
On Monday I traipsed back to Philadelphia for another court hearing. I went for two reasons. First, the issue under consideration in court was another one that my firm and industry are focusing on. The second, and main reason, was because I was told that the general counsel of a very chashuva hedge fund (and a new member of my firm) would be testifying. The reason this interested me is that it would give me the opportunity to meet the GC and, perhaps, persuade him to testify at a hearing in February that is of great importance to the industry.
The hearing went well and the GC was a fabulous witness. I got to introduce myself and spend a few minutes with the chashuva GC ("CGC"). Everything went according to plan.
After the hearing, I took a cab to the 30th Street Station to catch the 4:35 Acela Express back to New York. If everything worked out, I would be able to rush over to the LIRR and catch the 6:02 home.
Not.
The departures board at the station noted that the train would be 25 minutes late. No big deal. In fact, since I had scheduled a conference call for 4 p.m., I was happy to spend another 25 minutes in the station since it would make handling that call much easier.
Of course, 25 minutes turned into an hour and forty minutes. This looked bad. But actually, it turned out to be good. Very good.
As luck would have it, I ran into CGC who was also waiting for the train. We started talking, first about business, and then about other things. Turns out CGC is a Mormon. So when I told him I had five kids, he didn't flinch (unlike most people in business who look at me like I have two heads when I tell them that).
We ended up talking for almost three hours. He agreed to testify in February, making my trip a total success. But more than that, he turned out to be an extremely nice man who, despite his great success in business, was very humble and very family oriented and "baalabatish". I couldn't help thinking that this guy was a frum, "Modern Orthodox" Christian. Very serious about his religion, but very much a part of the modern world.
While I know that the Mormons have some strange stuff going on (unlike, say, Jews, whose religious practices are completely understandable and rational), I was impressed with CGC and his family oriented approach to life.
All in all, a very interesting afternoon.
On Monday I traipsed back to Philadelphia for another court hearing. I went for two reasons. First, the issue under consideration in court was another one that my firm and industry are focusing on. The second, and main reason, was because I was told that the general counsel of a very chashuva hedge fund (and a new member of my firm) would be testifying. The reason this interested me is that it would give me the opportunity to meet the GC and, perhaps, persuade him to testify at a hearing in February that is of great importance to the industry.
The hearing went well and the GC was a fabulous witness. I got to introduce myself and spend a few minutes with the chashuva GC ("CGC"). Everything went according to plan.
After the hearing, I took a cab to the 30th Street Station to catch the 4:35 Acela Express back to New York. If everything worked out, I would be able to rush over to the LIRR and catch the 6:02 home.
Not.
The departures board at the station noted that the train would be 25 minutes late. No big deal. In fact, since I had scheduled a conference call for 4 p.m., I was happy to spend another 25 minutes in the station since it would make handling that call much easier.
Of course, 25 minutes turned into an hour and forty minutes. This looked bad. But actually, it turned out to be good. Very good.
As luck would have it, I ran into CGC who was also waiting for the train. We started talking, first about business, and then about other things. Turns out CGC is a Mormon. So when I told him I had five kids, he didn't flinch (unlike most people in business who look at me like I have two heads when I tell them that).
We ended up talking for almost three hours. He agreed to testify in February, making my trip a total success. But more than that, he turned out to be an extremely nice man who, despite his great success in business, was very humble and very family oriented and "baalabatish". I couldn't help thinking that this guy was a frum, "Modern Orthodox" Christian. Very serious about his religion, but very much a part of the modern world.
While I know that the Mormons have some strange stuff going on (unlike, say, Jews, whose religious practices are completely understandable and rational), I was impressed with CGC and his family oriented approach to life.
All in all, a very interesting afternoon.
Labels: Random Thoughts
posted by MoChassid @ 1:45 PM
6 Comments:
At 1:29 PM,
Bob Miller said…
The difference is that the elements of our Jewish practice that we might not understand are based in truth.
At 5:57 PM,
MoChassid said…
Bob
Exactly.
At 9:39 PM,
rescue37 said…
where is lion of zion, wolfish musings and Jacob Da Jew when you need them to make mincemeat out of silly comments.
At 3:14 AM,
Anonymous said…
was that a joke?? i could not tell, there is nothing we do trhat does not make sense?? that was a little to extreme.
At 3:40 PM,
MoChassid said…
anon 3:14. It was a joke in the sense that to the outside world, much of what we do undoubtedly looks weird. As Bob Miller notes, however, the elements of our practice are based in truth.
At 10:46 PM,
Frances said…
Whether it's Christian counseling courses or perhaps other related religion-based counseling courses, taking up such courses would be important as there are people who are constantly searching for someone to guide them while being taught with the words from the holy book.
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