Dew soaks through my T-shirt, causing goose bumps to form up my legs. The frog croaks high and light, not soft like the peepers, or throaty like the bullfrog. I edge closer, slowly, shivering in the damp grass, legs tangled in wet skirt. The frog has shiny webbed feet, no definitive spots or stripes, probably rama clamitans. I lie still, watching its tongue dart out; then I reach out, tentative, hesitating. It jumps away, scared by my approaching hands.Linnaeus looked at nature, and where others saw chaos, he saw order. Clear lines, hierarchies of phylum, class, all the way down to individual species. Taxonomy. God’s creations in neat sets. Judaism is a lot like taxonomy, even if Bubbie and Neshama think it’s only oppression and patriarchy. It’s also beauty and concision and order. There’s a rule or law for just about everything, an order or right way to do things, from how to get married, to how to put on your shoes. Give me any week, and I can tell you what Torah portion you’re supposed to read, what lesson you should learn.Bubbie keeps asking me if I’m bored.
