Wow, thought Becky, feeling flattered. Becky and the rabbi talked about her pictures, about all the things wrong with the world. He didn't disagree or argue or tell her she was weird or sick. They talked about how creation was unfinished. How God counted on people to finish creation.
People finish the work of creation by doing mitzvot and living the Torah.
The rabbi's own efforts on behalf of street people were his way of helping to finish creation through mitzvot. The word mitzvot set off alarms in Becky's head. She suddenly felt let down, angry, betrayed. What she heard from the street rabbi was just more of the same old stupid stuff she'd heard a million times at Hebrew school about doing mitzvot-a bunch of hypocritical lies. She had repeated similar things in her d'var Torah at her bat mitzvah.