weekend of food, and Shabbat

[cellio]

Friday night the sisterhood led Shabbat services. (They do this once a year. Brotherhood did theirs last month.) While they mostly did a good job with the individual parts, the whole was extremely disappointing.

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 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.

Comments

[schulman.livejournal.com]

According to the Spring 2004 Penzey's catalog, the Chicago Steak Seasoning contains: "salt, Tellicherry black pepper, sugar, garlic, onion, lemon zest, citric acid, and natural hickory smoke flavor."

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.

[goljerp]

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.

I'm curious -- what books did they suggest?

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Grilled sponge cake?

[cellio]

Thanks for the pointer. Mainlining the spices is a big help in choosing them, but at least the catalog aids in re-ordering things you already know you want. (Ditto the friends who work nearby and have offered to pick things up for me.)

[cellio]

Yeah. It really surprised me the first time Ralph and Lori served it to me, but it's both simple and really tasty. Cut cake, put on the grill (I'd have to ask them how hot), cook about 30 seconds on each side, top with fruit, eat. You get this toasted fluffy cake that's really good.

Err, I said sponge cake, but maybe it was angel-food cake? It was fairly light and fluffy, in any case.

[cellio]

Here's the list. And I mis-spoke; I do own one of these, but it's the one they told us not to buy because they're going to give it to us, so it slipped my mind.

The Big Book of Terrific Teaching Ideas by Shirley Barish. UAHC Press 2004.

The Art of Public Prayer: Not for Clergy Only by Lawrence Hoffman. SkyLight Paths Publishing 1999. (Required before attendance at Summer Level II)

Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts edited by Barry W. Holtz. Summit Books 1984. (Required before attendance at Summer Level I)

The Reform Judaism Reader: North American Documents by Michael A. Meyer and Gunther Plaut. UAHC Press 2001.

The Jewish Home: A Guide for Jewish Living by Daniel B. Syme. UAHC Press 2003. (Gift from the SK/SA Program- to be received in Cincinnati)

Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice by Mark Washofsky. UAHC Press 2001.

I suspect that UAHC produces The Jewish Home in extreme bulk or something. I bought my first copy as part of the intro-to-Judaism course, and received my second copy as a wedding gift from my rabbi. Now I'll get a third (newer edition, apparently). I should check to see if I've given away the first one yet; if not I should. (The second has an inscription and isn't going anywhere.)