conservation of umbrellas

[cellio]

You know those dishes you sometimes find near cash registers with signs that say "Need a penny? Take a penny. Have a penny? Leave a penny."? (Or the gaming-con equivalent a few years ago when Magic: The Gathering was hot: "Have an Atog? ...".) I'm starting to think that black umbrellas are like pennies, at least at my synagogue.

We've had a steady rain all weekend. Friday night when I went to get my coat and umbrella after services, I found that my nondescript black umbrella was gone. But lo, there was another black umbrella that seemed to be unclaimed. After confirming that it did not belong to anyone still there, I concluded that I'd been part of an accidental swap and I took the stray. This is the second time that has happened to me there. Yes, the person who took "my" umbrella really took an umbrella belonging to some anonymous third party; my original umbrella has headed off for parts unknown.

I don't care; I don't buy fancy umbrellas, and if it really mattered I wouldn't buy black ones. But I have to wonder how often this happens out there.

It's been raining all weekend, so no sukkah dining for me the last couple days. On Sukkot we pray for rain, so I guess we should be neither surprised nor unhappy when we get it.

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

You're not completely alone. An old friend of mine (err, actually, in an odd coincidence I believe you know Luceta) used to find umbrellas that weren't theirs in her (rather old and decrepit) car. On at least two seperate occasions there were more umbrellas in the car than they'd left there. We eventually decided that surely it must be that some burglers were breaking into the car in the rain, realizing there was no radio to steal, and forgotten their umbrellas in the mix. Or something.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

We pray for rain on Shmini Atzeret -- it's early this year! :-)

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

My problem is that I won't take that umbrella that was probably left by the person who took mine. So I njust end up losing umbrellas. Not that I buy them very often.

[cellio]

No, no, no -- you break into cars to deposit zucchini, not umbrellas!

[cellio]

We do? I thought I saw "mayim" and "tal" go by in the Sukkot liturgy. Maybe I'm wrong or maybe that's not what that was.

[cellio]

I asked everyone who was still there before taking it. It was raining at the time, so I figured the odds of someone bringing it and leaving without any umbrella were low.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Tal is dew and it starts with Pesach -- Mayim is water and there are various mentions of it in things like the hoshanot. But rain is geshem and it doesn't start being mentioned until tomorrow -- when it looks quite timely, at least here!

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Also, the mentions of mayim are not for rain but because originally there was a ceremony of purifying the altar by pouring water on it during Sukkot, so there's a special association between water/purification. But rain is separate from that.

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah...it's completely illogical...if I was the last person in the building, I'd leave it in case they came back for it. I'm dumb like that. Overcompensation much...

[cellio]

Whoops. You're right; I mis-remembered "tal". And I don't recall hearing "geshem". Thanks.

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

It's been raining all weekend, so no sukkah dining for me the last couple days.

Makes it rather difficult to finish your soup ;-)

You can fulfil (most of?) the mitzva just by saying Kiddush in the sukkah, by the way. That's a good choice for drizzly days.

[cellio]

In fact, I was taught that if it's raining we are commanded to not eat in the sukkah, because it won't be a happy occasion. While, in most other areas, if a mitzvah is inconvenient or annoying that's your problem and you do it anyway, this is one where you're off the hook.