A Polish minuet

The Times of Israel has offered a new technology to us bloggers, and with the help of its inventor, Zach Abramowitz, I’m learning to use it.

A program called “ReplyAll” (note the lack of a space between the words, de rigeur if you want to seem technical) lets us publish conversations live to this site.

Exchanges that once might have languished, spinster-like, as long forlorn strings of back-and-forth email may now swan in the spotlight and have a glamorous public life. Or so it is hoped.

When I thought about whom I’d like to chat with in this new way, my thoughts turned to my neighbor (and fellow Times of Israel blogger) Rabbi Avi Baumol, whom I met last summer through a mutual friend in Israel. Avi is serving the Jewish community of Krakow, most notably through its big and beautiful JCC. He is also the Emissary of Shavei Israel here.

It struck me that a rabbi and a Dominican living a few streets apart in 21st-century Poland can talk in a way their medieval predecessors couldn’t.

So now, for better and (please God, not) for worse: we talk.

By the way, this conversation will develop “live” over the coming days and weeks. So you might want to come back periodically, if only to see if Avi and I are still friends: