cellio | short takes (pretty random)

Erik (the orange cat) bites his nails, but he won't let me clip them without a fight. That can't be efficient; consider the cross-section of a cat's tooth and the shape of a nail, versus the parameters of a tool designed for the job. Silly cat. He looks so industrious when he decides to shorten his nails, and I could solve that problem for him in just a few seconds.

When you save a web page in Mozilla, by default it creates a directory and collects in it all the associated graphics and stuff, rather than just dumping the HTML for the page. Handy!

The provider of my shell account and web space will host (and register) a vanity domain name for very small amounts of extra money. Just small enough that I'd go for it, if I could come up with something interesting. But I lack creativity. I've occasionally considered grabbing "cellio.org" (we're an Italian family; of course it's .org :-) ), but it doesn't really excite me. I don't want to use something so hobby-centric that I'd be embarrassed to use it professionally, but since I'm not currently planning to use it for business, I don't really want to build a business domain into it. I assume that all singleton English words are taken by either real people or squatters by now.

The morning minyan started using a new siddur a couple weeks ago (new daily version of Sim Shalom). I noticed that it uses a very handy typesetting convention that the Reform siddur (Gates of Prayer) adopted a few years back: writing a certain vowel (qametz) differently when its pronunciation changes. I approve.

(Hebrew is mostly a regular language when it comes to pronunciation, but there is one vowel that is sometimes "ah" and sometimes "oh", depending on rules that are only partially articulated. You just have to know, in some cases. So now there are two siddurim that are using the same minor variation in typesetting to signal this. I find it extremely helpful, and I'll be very disappointed if the new Reform siddur (due out in 2005) doesn't continue it.)

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I am such a prayer book geek that I got really excited about the news of the new daily Sim Shalom. Last shabbat Joy and I used the shabbat one (and I've used it on a few other occasions, including the 'beta' version), but I haven't seen the daily one.

I admit that I'm a bit torn. I remember thinking that the Sim Shalom was just too big when I first saw it. And I'll be the first to admit that there are features that are annoying about it - prayers with non-obvious page breaks, translation problems, lack of transliteration... but I've become used to it, warts and all. And it is kind of nice knowing that I can toss it into my suitcase and have pretty much everything I could want - including pirke avot. (Joy and I actually looked at pirke avot a bit last shabbat actually). And the "Baby Sim Shalom" shrinks it down to a reasonable size, as long as one's eyes are good.

I wonder if they'll print a small version which has both volumes included?

I wonder if they'll keep the old version in print?

I'm also excited about Or Hadash, a new commentary on the (Shabbat/festival) Slim Shalom by Reuven Hammer. It sounds pretty cool - with commentary arond the Slim Shalom pages.

I'm a siddur geek, too. I may end up buying this one; not sure yet. Thanks for the pointer to Or Hadash; I'd like to take a look.

My big orange cat, Steve, hid under the couch for the first 10 months of his life with us. He now lets me pet and snuggle him, but he'll only let

iamzaphod pet him when he's sitting on the toilet! hehe...

Steve is quite complacent when I cut his claws, which is really surprising considering his historical behaviour - i.e. no one could get near him! His snuggly from day one brother Ciaran (MUCH smaller B&W tuxedo cat) hates having his claws cut... (they were stray kittens of the same litter living in our back yard when we moved into our house last year).

Erik and Baldur (the gray-and-white cat) are littermates too, and their personalities are also somewhat different. And then there's Embla, the stray I took in several years later; she's very skittish, though this has gotten better over the 5+ years I've had her. She'll now sometimes consent to be in the same room as strangers, if people are quiet and move slowly. :-)

Steve hasn't gotten that far yet!

If he hears the door bell ring, you won't see him for at least a few hours. If he hears strangers, he's also gone.

But, it's only been 1 year for him... so maybe there's hope yet! :)

I'll try to find a scanner and get some pics of them up shortly. I think we're getting one at work soon. We have one that doesn't work very well... it keeps putting this wide yellow line through the center of the pics.

I saw the daily Sim Shalom in a bookstore a few weeks ago. I am quite jealous. I wish our shul could afford them. Also people there are used to the 1961 version, which fractures a couple of the prayers, is confusingly laid out, has the thee's and the thou's, and in general doesn't do it for me.

I do believe that Gates of Prayer adopted the kametz katon symbol from the older, complete Sim Shalom, which came out in 1984. I think it was original to that siddur (because there's a long discussion of it in the foreward). You are the first person I have ever come across who's noticed it. It is hard for a former Biblical Hebrew student at U of Chicago to sit through services when no chazan ever notices that handy symbol.

I saw the daily Sim Shalom in a bookstore a few weeks ago. I am quite jealous. I wish our shul could afford them.

I don't know how many our minyan bought. Turnout for daily services is (ahem) rather lower than for Shabbat, so that makes it feasible. We were previously using a siddur edited by someone named Silverman with a fairly generic name (alas, forgotten).

It looks like a good siddur. Crisp, clear typesetting, sensible layout from what I've seen so far, and easy navigation. I may buy one for home use. (Minor aside: why do they start wtih shacharit and not ma'ariv? Did the previous edition?)

They have an alternate version of Avot with the matriarchs included. That threw me for a loop when we first bumped into it. (I'm used to matriarchs from Reform services, but the specific additions are different and I've never seen matriarchs in this minyan before.)

I do believe that Gates of Prayer adopted the kametz katon symbol from the older, complete Sim Shalom, which came out in 1984.

Thanks for the correction! I had no idea; I haven't used that edition and they didn't cite it. I do hope it catches on more generally; it's very useful for those who care, and not harmful to those who don't.

You are the first person I have ever come across who's noticed it.

I wish that didn't surprise me. When we were doing the evaluation of the new Reform siddur I pointed out that this convention was absent and I wanted it back from GoP. I got a roomful of blank stares.

Err, I meant I wish that did surprise me. Long week. :-)

Minor aside: why do they start wtih shacharit and not ma'ariv? Did the previous edition?

Most siddurs I have seen start with shacharit. Indeed, the complete (1984) Sim Shalom starts with it. It seems intuitive to me that you start with the start of a normal day (not nec. a "calendar" day, at dusk). Also that's where the vast majority of the liturgy is. Shabbat-only and holiday-only siddurs/machzors start in the evening because that is when you start the shabbat/holiday-specific prayers. (And, sadly, I think that many non-minyangoers would be unable to find the shabbat/holiday prayers otherwise!)

They have an alternate version of Avot with the matriarchs included.

This issue has been roiling Conservatism for some time and the fact that they included the Imahot is a big step. Many chazans just did the Imahot without telling the congregation, or, like mine, slapped an Imahot version of the bracha on the inside back cover of the siddur. The Conservative siddur is often like that -- there are "alternative versions" and "some congregations omit..." directions that the authorities of the movement would never countenance as official practice, but that are in there because in practice many congregations do that anyway. The Imahot would fall into that category.

The old Sim Shalom is a very good book and it is what I prefer, all else equal. The new versions (daily and Shabbat) are revisions, and they are nicely laid out -- convenient for daveners in Hebrew. However, there is one drawback I don't like about them: the English translations are often tremendously bowdlerized, especially with gender issues -- they bend over backward to not refer to God as King but as Ruler, etc. I understand the commitment to equality, but past a certain point the Hebrew is no longer faithfully represented. So the older Sim Shalom is more my speed in that respect. It's worth a look.

short takes (pretty random)

I am such a Prayer book geek...

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kametz katon!

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