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Showing posts from November, 2014

Fear of Public Speaking, Re-Learned

Our learning group finished the "Moed Katan" Tractate of the Babylonian Talmud today. I was the only one who studied with the group from the beginning to the end, so they suggested that I would make the Siyum, a very short  speech and reading of the last lines of the tractate. The audience had about 50 people, and I was quite nervous. All my public speaking skills vanished, all the plans evaporated and I felt like in second grade. (That time I had to read a short poem in front of the entire school, and the size of the audience was so overwhelming that I forgot my lines. Everything.) This time I also forgot my lines, but very fast I regrouped and ended up saying something that had to be said. Right before the speech they let me know that instead of 5-7 minutes I planned for I will have 1-2 minutes. So there was just enough time for the very essence of what I know ( not much) , what I feel  ( overwhelming mixed feelings ), and what has to be said ( G-d knows what). I went int