Shavuot

Thursday night was our first community-wide tikkun leil shavuot, or late-night torah study for the holiday of Shavuot. There were three sessions with eight classes each to choose from, taught by a total of 19 local rabbis. My goal was to take classes from rabbis I'd never studied with before. This ended up producing one Reform and two Chabad rabbis (I knew the one was Reform and had never heard of the other two), which wasn't quite the mix I was expecting.

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Friday morning I went to my congregation for services and, as is becoming habitual, was asked to be one of the readers for the book of Ruth. This time I got the first chapter, which contains the "wherever you go I will go" declaration. Having said those words in front of a beit din a decade ago, it had some special resonance for me, and I had to concentrate a bit to stay on track during the reading. I've never gotten to read the first chapter in shul before. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

review: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (CLO, Pittsburgh)

This afternoon Dani and I went to see the CLO production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I am fond of the soundtrack and had seen one other production; Dani was unfamiliar with the show and I think didn't quite realize the tone it would take. We both enjoyed this production quite a bit. (If you don't know the story, see Genesis chapters 37-46, approximately. If you don't know the flavor of the show, you can find clips at the CLO site.)

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