Ragin Rabbi

So what's the story behind RAGIN' RABBI? It all came about during my time in the Navy, on board the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). One of my more notable highlights while on that ship was my position as the ship's Jewish Lay Leader. Since there are a limited number of Jewish Chaplains in the Navy, the Lay Leader takes over some of the administrative duties where there was no chaplain for a particular following. This means I ran the organized Jewish services while out to sea, such as the weekly Friday night Shabbat service, and the occasional Holiday observance as well. So, basically, I was the HMFJIC (Head MFin' Jew In Charge). It was well known down in the nuclear engineering spaces, where I worked, that I was Jewish and very proud of my Jewish Israeli-American heritage. While sitting around the electrical switchgear room, with my fellow 2-Planters, we would some times break the boredom with small bouts of switchgear wrestling matches. Some I won, most I lost. It was one such day, after a somewhat humbling defeat at the hands of my buddy Rick, that I sitting back trying to recompose myself. Rick, bless his heart, just couldn't leave well enough alone, and began to pester and toy with me. In an assault of surprising speed and ferocity, I jumped up and bowled Rick over, pinning him down to the mat, even throwing in a couple of lame punches, to drive the point home. After a few seconds it was over and I helped Rick to his feet. Some of the other EMs in attendance were stunned and thought I had gone into some sort of a rage. I was thereafter referred to as "The Ragin Rabbi", a nickname that stuck through the rest of my Naval Career.