holiday

[cellio]

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.

Comments

[cellio]

They're actually pretty good about singing (we've been working on that), but they aren't ready to dance in the aisles just yet. :-)

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.

[goljerp]

Nah, what you really need to do is get to NY or the Boston area. For the latter, the Tremont Street Shul was always great (although I haven't been there in years). In NY, you could do the tour d'Simchat Torah on the Upper West Side, starting with JTS, going down to Ansche Chesed, hopping over to Sha'are Tzedek, and finishing with a bang at BJ. Yes, that's four Conservative Egalatarian shuls in one evening. If you still want more, Carlebach goes on for ever...

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!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Tremont St. still has the street closed off :-).

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.

[cellio]

Well, not this year at this point. :-) Thanks for the invitation! One of these days...