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holiday
I'm really glad that the Reform movement follows the Israeli calendar for the festivals. This means that tonight and tomorrow we will combine Sh'mini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, while others in the disapora will have this on two days.
Why do I care in this case? Because I just don't get Sh'mini Atzeret. I mean, it's a torah-mandated holiday so we have to keep it, but all attempts to infuse it with meaning have thus far fallen flat for me. (Yeah, yeah -- an extra day of assembly after the festival of Sukkot, because we're that special to God that he asked us to stick around. Kind of works intellectually but not emotionally or spiritually for me.) It's sort of a naked holiday (similar to the last day of Pesach in that respect) -- you have the holiday liturgy but no ritual specific to this holiday, and it's just kind of... eh.
Simchat Torah, on the other hand, is fun. It's when we complete the annual reading of the torah and immediately start again. We take the torah scrolls out and dance around with them and sing and have fun. My congregation is, I'm told, somewhat staid by comparison (I'm not sure I could really use the word "dance"), and one of these days I'll find a congregation that goes all-out just so I can see what's possible, but my congregation does a pretty good job. And tonight will be the debut of our new in-house band; I'm looking forward to hearing them.
Why do I care in this case? Because I just don't get Sh'mini Atzeret. I mean, it's a torah-mandated holiday so we have to keep it, but all attempts to infuse it with meaning have thus far fallen flat for me. (Yeah, yeah -- an extra day of assembly after the festival of Sukkot, because we're that special to God that he asked us to stick around. Kind of works intellectually but not emotionally or spiritually for me.) It's sort of a naked holiday (similar to the last day of Pesach in that respect) -- you have the holiday liturgy but no ritual specific to this holiday, and it's just kind of... eh.
Simchat Torah, on the other hand, is fun. It's when we complete the annual reading of the torah and immediately start again. We take the torah scrolls out and dance around with them and sing and have fun. My congregation is, I'm told, somewhat staid by comparison (I'm not sure I could really use the word "dance"), and one of these days I'll find a congregation that goes all-out just so I can see what's possible, but my congregation does a pretty good job. And tonight will be the debut of our new in-house band; I'm looking forward to hearing them.
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I have heard that certain Hasidic congregations are much more centered around the joy of the event and, therefore, are probably not so staid at all
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I've heard the same thing about Chassidic congregations. I've been hesitant to go alone, being a woman. (Did that once for Shabbat and had unfortunate results -- was the only person in the women's section.) I just realized that I actually have a connection there now, but it's probably too late to try to make arrangements for this year. (I'd want to go Thursday night and they won't be answering the phone from a few hours from now until it's over. I should have thought of this a couple days ago.) Well, there's always next year.
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Alas, we haven't been outside since '01 (they used to close off an avenue and there would be blocks of people dancing outside...) but it's still a lot of fun!
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Monica, if you decide to come (likely next year, at this point ;-), you're invited to stay; I'm about a half mile from Tremont St.
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Man, Jews really do have more fun.
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Ah, yes -- the favorite holiday of the secular students at Brandeis. The first year I got there, I'd been there scarcely a month before we got a day off for Sh'mini Atzeret, and not one of my friends had the slightest clue *what* the heck Sh'mini Atzeret was. But for a college student, a day off from classes is cause for celebration all by itself...
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Well, that depends on whether you're going to have to make up the work. If everyone gets the day off (like it sounds like you did), that's a win. If you get the day off, but are still responsible for the material, that's less fun.
By the time you got the day off for Sh'mini Atzeret, you should have been through days off for Rosh Hashsna (3 weeks earlier) and Sukkot (1 week earlier), perhaps leading you to conclude that Jews just get most Thursdays off (or whatever). :-) (And Yom Kippur would have been in there too, but on a different day of the week.)
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Yep. The day of the week varies, but it's normal for Brandeis to miss scads of some particular day of the week in the fall most years. They wind up declaring one or two other days to be, eg, "Brandeis Mondays", where everyone does their Monday classes on a Wednesday, to even it out a bit.
(It's a delightfully weird school -- officially secular, but very much secular-Jewish in practice, so pretty much every Jewish holiday worth noting is an official school holiday...)
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It's gotta be pretty unusual (except in Israel) for Jews to be a significant-enough demographic that it's not necessary to make all sorts of special arrangements with professors, food service, employers, and whatnot. (My manager doesn't even ask any more. "It's a random Jewish holiday you've probably never heard of; see you the day after tomorrow" works fine.)
I'm just glad that we're done with this now until Pesach; while I enjoy the holidays, they can be pretty disruptive, especially with the clumping in the fall. Gotta talk to the author of the spec about that usability issue. :-)
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Broadly speaking, Brandeis doesn't do weekends, IIRC. I don't remember having to do anything academic either Saturday or Sunday.
It's gotta be pretty unusual
It's an unusual school, possibly even unique in the US. It was specifically founded to have a Jewish character without being explicitly religious. *Very* much a product of its day (around 1950)...
interesting...
*granted we'd only do Hallel once if both days were combined
Re: interesting...