I am going to faint

I’m here in University of Warwick for Limmud’s Winter conference and I have a smile as wide as my face and I haven’t even done anything yet. Just the atmosphere. You can breathe it; sense it; live it. Already in 10 minutes, I have seen old grannies, long bearded rabbis, secular women, young families, knitted kippot galore, lots of people I know, hundred I don’t, Muslims, doughnuts, a 10 year old volunteer, a massive chanukiah, people helping out, everyone smiling, everyone ready to learn. Breathe Neil, Breathe

I have just put my stuff down in some university Halls of Residence and this is what it should have felt like to be at university. A culture of everyone together, everyone different, everyone wanting to learn.

My problem will be in deciding what to do. There are 5 days with about 10 time-slots per day. Some timeslots have over 30 things happening at once to choose from. In half an hours time- in just one slot- there are the following to choose from:

· Elijah, the Wandering Jew
· Homeopathy-Jewish Roots
· The State of the Nation- Israel Politics and Diplomacy: What’s on the agenda for 2009?
· Next year where? Thinking about Jewish Future
· Eros and the Jews
· A Tour of Tehillim
· Traditional Jewish Paper Cuts
· Gender and Religious Identity in Orthodox Popular Music
· Limmud South Africa: Democratising a community?
· The First Timers Guide to Limmud
· Introduction to Young Limmud
· How to change the world in three easy steps
· Self, Other Text, G-d: Dialogical Philosophy from Rosenzweig to Levinas
· Can Halacha make sense? Beyond formalism, postmodernism, historicism and sociologism
· The Psychological Significance of Mezuzah: Symbol or Superstition?
· Mass Communication and the Transformation of Contemporary Democracies
· Songwriting and Music Sharing Workshop
· Jewish Magic, Magical Judaism
· Write Reaction to Limmud
· How does a Jew say ‘I’m sorry’?
· A Jewish Lobby in the UK?

All in one session, and most happening only once, and more than one I want to do. Really, I should go to the intro session to Limmud so that I know what the hell is going on. But I can’t, and won’t. Too much to do! I have 25 minutes to choose and get there. Stressful and exciting all in once.