cellio | Friday night

I led services at Tree of Life last night. It went very well. There was a larger crowd than usual because they had a guest speaker, which I actually didn't know in advance. I got a lot of compliments afterward, which is always pleasant. Once again, a few people thought I was a cantor (TM).

I think one of the visitors thinks I'm Orthodox-leaning. He invited me to come check out Young People's Synagogue (YPS), which is a lay-run (rabbi-less) Orthodox congregation that describes itself as participatory and eager for new people. I am curious about that congregation and have thought of visiting it at times in the past, but I never have. Intimidation at work, I suppose. Perhaps I will drop in on them, now that I've been invited and all.

(Question for my traditional friends: I have zero fashion sense and don't know anything about hats. What exactly am I supposed to wear on my head if I go? I haven't been to an Orthodox service since getting married.)

A few of the weekday-morning regulars were there, and I was talking with one of them at the oneg. We talked about me maybe learning the weekday morning service, and he said something like "if I can do it you certainly can". I took the compliment for what it was while mentally disputing the antecedent. :-) (I've been there a few times when he's led. It was, um, a test of my powers of concentration. He is melodically and linguistically challenged, though he is a decent person who means well.)

The assistant rabbi (who was running things this week) overheard the part of this conversation where I said that I need to get someone to teach me a couple of the chants/melodies, and he offered to make me a tape of anything I want. I will take him up on that. Mind, the weekday group has a regular leader, so I don't see this coming up very often, but it would be handy to have the skill for the occasional times when he's sick or out of town or whatever. And besides, it would be kind of nice for me to be able to lead the whole service on my "birthday portion" next year. (This year I chanted Torah and led the closing part of the service. They offered me the whole thing, but I had to decline.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What to wear...

The temple my parents belong to now is Conservative in name only--it is more like orthodox where the people can sit together. For a while the president of the temple was a woman and she would always wear hats on the bima. Granted I was a college student at the time, but since she was a short woman one of my favorite parts of service was "Watching the talking hat" because the microphone shielded her from view.

Some women wore veils, and that always looked very attractive. If you go the hat route nothing wiht too wide a brim or feathers. (The lady always wore feathers). My suggestion would be to call up the temple and ask them.

Keep us posted on what happens.

If you decide you need a hat, K-Mart sells reasonable hats. If you want help picking one out, I'm game. :-)

PS: I don't know if there are color taboos, but my opinion is that black matches a lot of things.

You should wear a hat that covers all of your hair. Some women wear a snood (sp?), which is definitely easier than a hat to cover hair with, as I'm discovering. I've got a large beret that I've been wearing and I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it.

You could, of course, get a sheitel. ;)

Where do I procure something like a snood? (I told you I was clueless. :-) ) I've occasionally been tempted to walk up to women in Kosher Mart and ask "where can I buy one of those?", but I'm too much of a coward.

In Pittsburgh I'm not so sure. But you live in Squirrel Hill, so I would imagine that somewhere there you'll find a hat store and you may find that the hat store has them.

I'm also going to look for an online source for you.

http://www.jewishtown.com/snood.html

That's the best one I can come up with right now, but I'm certain there are others.

Thank you! Much appreciated. I will check them out.

And just to throw some more information out there six months later...

http://www.tznius.com has hats and a few snoods and lots of beautiful tichels (scarves).

Friday night

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