Shavuot

Thursday night I went to my synagogue for Shavuot services and then Torah study. Our Shavuot evening service doubles as "confirmation" (10th grade), and the students write and lead the service. (Well, they don't change the key parts, but they add in a variety of readings that they wrote.) This year's group was fairly articulate. It was also rather smaller than the groups have been the past couple years. I don't know if that's a change in the number of people in that age group or the number of people who continue their religious education past bar mitzvah.

The Torah study afterwards was the smallest Shavuot study I've seen at Temple Sinai -- peak was about 15 people. It meant we had a nice intimate discussion and I enjoyed that; I don't think it's quite what the rabbi was planning, but he rolled with it.

Friday morning's service was in the chapel rather than the main sanctuary. I love that room. It was almost but not completely full, so it was the right call. Because the Reform movement only observes one day of holidays rather than two, the morning service included Yizkor. (This is a memorial prayer for ancestors, and also the martyrs of our people. It's said several times a year, at certain holidays.) I always feel a little weird sitting through Yizkor; I have no dead Jewish relatives, after all. In some congregations it's traditional for those with living parents to leave before Yizkor, but that's not true of my congregation.

Friday afternoon I read, napped, and practiced the Hebrew reading for Saturday. (SCA event, not synagogue.) Friday night, back for Shabbat services (with some exceptional singing from our cantor), then home to see Dani (awake) for the first time since Wednesday night.

Next year I should see if I can spend Shavuot afternoon with other people (whether I invite them for lunch or go elsewhere). It felt kind of lonely, and it's supposed to be a joyous holiday. Most Jews neglect this holiday somewhat to begin with; I should make more of an effort to hook up with those who don't so I can feel more a part of a community.

War Practice (SCA)

This weekend was the War Practice event, held at the same site where the Pennsic War will be held in August. War Practice is a weekend event, but Dani and I day-trip because it's not that far and we really hate camping. And this year it was freaking cold (and raining), so lots of people who had planned to camp bailed on that at the last minute.

We wanted to be there early enough to catch morning court, because a friend (Kathy, aka Elsbeth) was going to be sent on vigil for a Laurel (the highest arts award one can receive). Things were running a little late, so we did in fact make it in time for this.

There was an artisans' display in the morning, and I saw some neat stuff. I got a lesson in tablet-weaving 3/1 twill from one person (this looks complicated; I think I won't try that just yet). I also got to talk with someone about bookbinding for a while. I've tried bookbinding (once), so it was useful to see how he handled some of the tricky bits. Raven and Leifr were displaying the glass beads they've been making; these are really cool. (There's a new glass center in Pittsburgh, and they've been taking lessons, both beads and blown glass.)

A chunk of Saturday afternoon was taken up by a laurel meeting. For certain awards in the SCA, the royalty have to poll the current holders of the award, and in this kingdom the orders are pretty much self-powered. That is, the royalty of course make the decisions, but we pretty much organize ourselves, maintain our own candidate list, and so on. So every now and then we have to meet to exchange information about what we've learned about the candidates and their arts. Our list has grown a little long, so this took a while. I have some ideas about how we might organize this differently in the future; I'll have to bounce them off of the person in charge.

At evening court lots of local people got much-deserved awards. Ts'vee'a (Gail) received a court barony; this is the one with the Hebrew scroll text. (The scroll also has the English.) They did a cute bit of schtick: they called her up, said something vague about rewarding her efforts, and then had me read the text "in her native tongue". I couldn't watch her as much as I would have liked because I was reading, but I did catch some of her reaction and I noticed the point where she figured out what the award was. Glad to know that I was reading well enough to be coherent. :-) (There was a point about halfway through where it was obvious to everyone, Hebrew-literate or not, and she figured it out before that point.) Yes, they then read the English for everyone else.

I was surprised to discover, as I got ready to read, that I was suffering some stage fright. Except when reading (or saying) my own words, I pretty much don't get stage fright any more. But this time I did. I had practiced the text and read it flawlessly earlier in the day, but in court I made some fumbles because of the nervousness. Weird.

fiannaharpar received a much-deserved service award, as did my friends Leifr and Christof. Don is finally going to be knighted, which is very cool. And Dani received a writ to appear at an event at the end of June to receive his Laurel. He was completely floored. He knew something was up because at the beginning of court I asked him to take off the mundane sweater he was wearing over his garb (did I mention that it was cold yesterday?), but he didn't know what was happening. I've known about this for about a month, but the royalty like to surprise people with the writs so I'm glad he didn't figure it out. Now we've got a month and change to organize the actual ceremony (and vigil).