work retreat, morning minyan

[cellio]

Thank you to everyone who responded to my laptop-versus-PDA query.

Thursday was our annual company retreat, held way the heck too far out of town. It's a nice site, but it's 40 miles from the office, and they schedule it so you're in rush-hour traffic both ways. Oh well. (Note to self: if we use this site again, bring own caffeine supply for the morning. They didn't put out pop until after lunch.)

I went late, after morning services, hitching a ride with someone else with a constraint (dropping kids off at school). I had an interesting (brief) conversation with that congregation's new rabbi after services. He had noticed that in Ashrei, when we say "poteach et yadecha" (you open your hand), I open my hand. This is traditional, but apparently a lot of people (particularly younger folks) don't do it and he wanted to know where I learned. He seemed surprised when I named my rabbi. (I'm sure he was surprised by Reform, not my rabbi personally.)

I said something to the effect that I hadn't understood why that particular phrase, of all the phrases in davening that could possibly have associated gestures, rated this treatment, until I was studing tractate B'rachot (with my rabbi) and came to the discussion of why we include Ashrei in the service three times a day. The rabbis specifically call out this phrase in the discussion (I would now have to look up the details of why). So it seems to be a prominent phrase in a prominent psalm, so maybe emphasizing that a little makes some sense.

He said he likes that explanation, though sometimes people just fixate on particular phrases for no good reason. He brought up the part of birkat hamazon (the grace after meals) that says something like "I have never seen good people suffer" (it goes on in this vein), and how people sometimes object to that but then don't object to other parts of davening that might be equally problematic. I said I'm one of the people who has trouble with that, and the best rationalization I can come up with (which is very weak) is: I do not have perfect vision (only God does), so who's to say that what I think I see is what I really see? The rabbi said I have a talent for midrash. :-)

Their new rabbi is on the bimah during morning services, but he doesn't lead. After the first time I asked him if I was encroaching (maybe he wanted to lead) and he said no, go ahead. Every week he has complimented me on something, so I'll take this as ongoing consent. (You don't need a rabbi to lead, of course, and it's not automatic that a rabbi would trump a layperson, but I figure it's polite to defer if that seems to be called for.)

The rabbi has an Ashkenazi pronunciation (and accent). Most of the congregation sits in the back third of the pews, so I'm not used to having a different-to-me pronunciation so close. It's improving my concentration skills. :-)