Shavuot

( late-night torah study )

We pretty much filled up the chapel for Monday morning's service. This is a good turnout. Our holiday services used to be more "old-school" than our Shabbat services -- older crowd, older siddur, performative music, etc. That's been changing over the last few years, and this one had much of the character of what our Shabbat services have become -- warm, participatory, accessible. The two rabbis and our cantorial soloist led the service; my rabbi read torah and the associate rabbi chanted haftarah (beautifully), and lay readers divided up the book of Ruth. This book has special resonance for me, as you might expect, but when my rabbi asked for volunteers I held back, mindful of the fact that I get more opportunities than most. Still, I was happy that my rabbi asked me to read a chapter. (Note to self: the combination of the particular book we use and the lighting in the chapel makes this a little challenging; I should print out my own copy in a good, crisp, large font and tuck it into the tallit bag that day just in case.)

As the last stragglers were leaving the building we saw (and heard) the power fail throughout the building. As I walked home I saw that lights were out for several blocks. (I also saw that too many drivers don't understand that "traffic light out" means "all-way stop". Grr.) I was dreading an afternoon without air conditioning after a walk home in 90-degree heat, but, fortunately, the outage zone ended two blocks before my house. I wonder what caused the outage -- too many ACs in the business district, maybe? (It wasn't a storm and I didn't see any emergency-response activity during my walk home.)

The people I had invited for lunch had to cancel, so I was alone for the afternoon. That's disappointing but, after the excellent study session the night before and the service in the morning, it wasn't terrible. Still, I'd like it if this aspect worked out better next year.