Rosh Hashana in bullet points
Sep. 20th, 2009 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellio- Normal 15-minute drive home from work Friday took 45 minutes.
+ But I'd done most of the cooking the night before.
+ Used special candles that were a Pesach present from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lefkowitzga's father.
- Kabbalat shabbat shrunk to make room for Rosh Hashana.
+ Seasonal motifs work: the majesty of the HHD music was quite evocative.
- Off-by-one error in the assigned torah readings left me preparing one more verse five minutes before the service.
+ I could, in part because I thought that might happen and looked at it briefly the night before.
+ Compliment from several: "you sounded like you knew what you were chanting". That's because I did, and I also got the climax of the passage.
+ Excellent sermon jumping off from Yishmael (not Yitzchak as we often do).
- Morning liturgy felt choppy to me: day-of-judgment stuff was very effective but we seemed to spend more time celebrating the creation of the world instead. Maybe I need to get myself a traditional machzor to better learn and appreciate. (Suggestions welcome.)
+ Unatana tokef brought out the gravity of the day quite thoroughly.
- I wish I'd felt more of that before Rosh Hashana.
+ Second-day service was a nice complement to the first.
+ The rising crescendo of the last shofar blast, t'kiah g'dolah; to conserve breath it starts low and quiet and then intensifies to the final blast. *shiver*
-/+ No guests (minus), but it meant meals could be lower key and that turned out to be good.
+ Afternoon games of Pandemic, because it's ok to not spend all your time focusing on the themes of the season.
+ But I'd done most of the cooking the night before.
+ Used special candles that were a Pesach present from
lefkowitzga's father.- Kabbalat shabbat shrunk to make room for Rosh Hashana.
+ Seasonal motifs work: the majesty of the HHD music was quite evocative.
- Off-by-one error in the assigned torah readings left me preparing one more verse five minutes before the service.
+ I could, in part because I thought that might happen and looked at it briefly the night before.
+ Compliment from several: "you sounded like you knew what you were chanting". That's because I did, and I also got the climax of the passage.
+ Excellent sermon jumping off from Yishmael (not Yitzchak as we often do).
- Morning liturgy felt choppy to me: day-of-judgment stuff was very effective but we seemed to spend more time celebrating the creation of the world instead. Maybe I need to get myself a traditional machzor to better learn and appreciate. (Suggestions welcome.)
+ Unatana tokef brought out the gravity of the day quite thoroughly.
- I wish I'd felt more of that before Rosh Hashana.
+ Second-day service was a nice complement to the first.
+ The rising crescendo of the last shofar blast, t'kiah g'dolah; to conserve breath it starts low and quiet and then intensifies to the final blast. *shiver*
-/+ No guests (minus), but it meant meals could be lower key and that turned out to be good.
+ Afternoon games of Pandemic, because it's ok to not spend all your time focusing on the themes of the season.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-21 01:17 am (UTC)Gmar tov!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-22 02:31 am (UTC)Google tells me that there is a RH volume in addition to the YK volume you linked to. Any idea why I couldn't find it on the OU site? Is there some issue with it?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-22 01:41 pm (UTC)RH liturgy is odd. It's nominally yom hadin but thet finds its expression primarily in the theme of coronation of hamelech hakadosh. The "birthday of the world" stuff is pretty much limited to hayom harat olam after each set of shofar blasts in chazarat hashatz, and aside from untaneh tokef there's not a lot of teshuvah in there.
In fact, one of the speakers we had discussed that we've been reciting selichot now for a week; erev R"H was a really long set of selichot, and Sunday night we went back into selichot and will for a whole 'nother week. Kol nidre and neilah are primarily selichot services. So, he asked, why don't we say selichot on yom hadin itself?
I don't recall his answer, I'm afraid, except that it had to do with the coronation aspect of the day overpowering the penitential season.