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weekend of food, and Shabbat
Really, they're as bad as the worst of the bar-mitzvah families. They made the service about them, in a way that was very off-putting to the rest of the congregation. I heard several men complain about it; I, as a woman who is not part of sisterhood, was also offended.
During the time slot normally occupied by a sermon, they spent a bit over four minutes (yes, I do tend to time unusual phenomena during services) on words of torah. They then spent sixteen minutes on a theme that I summarize as "rah, rah, we're sisterhood, look at all the good things we do for the rest of the congregation". This reminds me of when the parents of a bar-mitzvah kid will get up (at a general Shabbat service, not their semi-private family one) and go on at length about how their kid is so great, almost always in secular matters, and to a level of detail that is only interesting to other members of that family. It's just plain rude, in my opinion. (It is ok for the rabbi to praise the bar-mitzvah kid, or sisterhood, at some length, and it's ok for the parents/sisterhood to say something short. But insiders shouldn't overdo it.)
There were a lot of sisterhood members involved in the service, each reading little bits. They had four (!) aliyot for the torah reading instead of the usual one. The goal seemed to be to get everyone who wanted it some time on the bima, like they do with the class services.
It was, for all intents and purposes, a service about sisterhood, rather than a service facilitated by sisterhood. Adults should know better.
This summer the worship committee is going to be leading a service. I am going to make damn sure that we do not take over and make it about us. Our job is to facilitate for the congregation, and I want to provide at least one positive example to plant the idea that you can do that. Are people going to have some spotlight time to do things they can't mormally do? Of course, and I'll be one of them -- but if it's about us, we're doing something wrong.
Friday's email brought a short reading list for the
sh'liach k'hilah program. I am pleased that the list
consists entirely of books I do not already own. This
makes me even more optimistic about the program teaching
me lots of things I don't already know. I expected that to
be the case, but now I have some evidence to support that
belief. (They haven't yet sent a detailed curriculum
description.)
Saturday evening we went to an SCA dinner on the theme
of "travelling food". There were more desserts than
non-desserts, which in retrospect makes sense. Cookies
are an obvious thing to make. I should have made something
main-dish-y instead of individual strawberry tarts.
It was a fun dinner, and I got to meet some new cats. :-)
From there we went to an impromptu party that
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lefkowitzga threw together around some
last-minute guests from out of town. She's a great party
host, and I had fun talking with some people I don't see
as often as I'd like.
Sunday dinner was especially tasty this week.
ralphmelton grilled steaks that were
very good; we concluded that the spice rub called
"Chicago style" that he got at Penzey's was especially good.
(I don't know what's in it. Eventually I will send agents to
Penzey's to do some shopping for me, as the local instance has
no hours that are compatable with working normal hours and
keeping Shabbat.)
Random food note: sponge cake grilled for about 30 seconds per side and then topped with fruit is really good.
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If you can't make it to the store, you should sign up (http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/penzeyscatalog.html) for their quarterly catalog. It's an entertaining catalog, full of recipes, information about the spices, and pictures of very pretty food.
Of course, you don't get to mainline the aromas the way you do at the brick-and-mortar store.
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