Friday night

[cellio]

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.)

Comments

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

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.