Dear Pittsburgh water authority: could you arrange for me to have more than a trickle of water by tomorrow morning when I'm going to want to take a shower? Thanks. (A water main broke in Oakland this afternoon -- about ten hours ago, so I would have thought we'd have water pressure by now. I wonder if they're having trouble finding the shut-off valves again.)

I got my torah-reading assignment for the high holy days today. I'm reading on the second day of Rosh Hashana. The Reform movement reads the Akeidah on the first day, while traditional congregations read it on the second day. So what do we read on the second day? Creation, because Rosh Hashana is the birthday of the world. I like that. I'm reading the first three days of creation. If I can learn the high-holy-day trope in time I'll do that (it's pretty and I'd like to do it); if I can't, I can fall back to regular trope and maybe I can use that knowledge again in a few weeks for Simchat Torah. Either way works. And I can be certain that I won't have any trouble finding the beginning of the portion. :-)

Today when we studied my rabbi asked if I wanted to do something seasonal. (Sure!) So we studied the first mishna in tractate Rosh Hashana, the Rashi, and some of the gemara (more next time). He read and translated the mishna and Rashi (with occasional kibbitzing from me), and then he had me read the gemara (though he had to do a lot of the translation). That is, he had me read Aramaic without vowels. I got a lot of words wrong, but I also got a lot right; I'm starting to get the right instincts. Neat!

At work I've been trying to get some more resources for my project, and my project manager has had limited success. To my surprise, two other project managers have come to me recently to ask what I need so they can help. I'm happy for the help (especially if they can deliver), but I have the impression this isn't how it usually works. (But hey -- it's just possible I might actually get some QA! Score!)

I've been listening to the latest Ruach CD, a compilation/sampler of new Jewish music that comes out every two years. The big winner on this album for me is L'Chu N'rananah by a group called Mah Tovu. I would definitely like to hear more of their work.

Links:

Geek to geek communications, a write-up of what sounds like an interesting talk. (I'd not previously heard of either the speaker or the conference.)

Sometimes eBay is just a venue for good stories, with sales being secondary. That said, I'm impressed that she got that much -- stories do seem to sell stuff better than conventional listings. (A friend recently reported moving a piece of furniture on Craigslist by casting it as a pet-looking-for-new-home ad.)

Spiritually very good. Feel scrubbed clean. Physically so-so. Back started aching around hour 22; never had that before. Should have taken a walk during Yizkor; sitting for those 50 minutes made it worse. Only reason I sit through Yizkor is to not miss Ne'ilah.

Good class during afternoon beit midrash (what we do to pass the time between services). Some new perspectives on Yaakov. More later.

Learned a torah portion (one aliya) in one hour. Surprised. Short, but still... No, not for today.

Not sure when grammar departed. :-)

Rosh Hashana was mostly very good. My rabbi gave an excellent sermon on Friday night and a pretty good one on Saturday morning; when he posts them on our web site (probably in a few weeks) I'll post a link. Friday night's was about strengthening our connections to God, torah, and Israel; he talked a lot about how a lot of people have children's views of torah (because that's when a lot of people stopped learning) and it's time to come look at the "adult torah" that has things to say about matters we consider important today. That resonates for me (not surprising). I can't do the sermon justice, alas.

I chanted torah Saturday morning and received many compliments, including from the associate rabbi (who's previously heard me read but not chant). We talked a bit about learning portions and I commented that knowledge of the Hebrew helps but I've got a way to go there yet. He said he's interested in doing more with teaching Hebrew, including to adults. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. He might be a more accessible resource for Hebrew than my rabbi is (because the new guy probably isn't as over-scheduled yet); I wonder what the best way to pursue that would be. (Can I trade for Hebrew tutoring with English tutoring, I wonder?)

During the morning service yesterday it looked like a congregant collapsed; we on the bimah had a clear view as people came in with a wheelchair to take her out (to, I presume, paramedics). I hope she's ok. It was hard not to look, even though I know that if everyone on the bimah is looking at something everyone in the congregation will follow their eyes. I certainly didn't want to contribute to embarrassing that person. My rabbi addressed it rather than ignoring it, which I think is right; he paused after finishing the prayer he was leading and inserted a brief prayer for healing. Good call, I think.

Most Reform Jews don't keep a second day of Rosh Hashana (myself included), but we have enough people who do that we had our first-ever second-day service this year. It had some new English readings; the phrase "creative service" usually makes me suspicious because they can be badly done, but this one was done well and left core liturgy intact. We got lots of positive comments from the 75-100 people who showed up. It'll be interesting to see what happens next year when the second day of Rosh Hashana is on a weekday. Attendance will be down, I'm sure, but if word of today's service spreads, it might still be critical mass.

We had guests Friday night and this afternoon, one couple each time. This allowed for some pleasant conversation without Dani feeling he was too outnumbered. :-) He had previously met (and been to the homes of) both couples.

Saturday was my birthday. I know that in reality, 1000 people did not get together yesterday morning to celebrate my birthday, but it still makes for a good line. :-)

(I hear you saying: what, in May? :-) )

This year, for the first time, my congregation is going to have services for the second day of Rosh Hashana. Our not doing so was the only way in which we veered from our policy of following the Israeli calendar, and the rabbi brought it up with the worship committee recently and we decided to try it. That the second day of RH is on a Sunday, rather than a weekday, this year will not hurt. :-)

Someone on the committee asked if we could do some "creative" readings instead of just repeating the previous day's service. "Creative" can be a code word for "fluffy" (usually is, IMO, but there are exceptions), so when the rabbi asked a subcommittee to make proposals I asked to be in the group. As I privately told the chair of the worship committee, my goal here is to keep things from getting weird. (I don't know if these particular people are prone to weird, but better safe than sorry.)

The subcommittee met for the first time last night. It's a good thing I'm part of it; some of the other members were all too willing to cut out required parts of the service and I was able to talk to them about what's core liturgy that we Do Not Mess With, what can tolerate variations, and where our machzor already made adaptations so we can make different adaptations if we like. I wish I had a more traditional machzor to use as a reference, though I don't wish it enough to spend money. Hmm, I wonder if I can borrow one from Tree of Life; I'll try to remember to ask on Thursday. The problem is that sometimes Gates of Repentance (our machzor) made changes -- they're clearly changes -- but without knowing what they replaced, it's hard to know how to react.

I think we'll be able to produce a service that's true to what it's supposed to be. I've mentally identified areas where I can give the other members free rein, which should give me karma points to apply to the parts of the service I really care about. We'll see. Of course, the full committee has to approve and the rabbi has final say.

We talked a little about the balance of Hebrew and English, and congregational reading versus readings by the leader. We were looking at something that's specific to the RH liturgy and someone said (without looking at it) that the congregation could read this in Hebrew. I said the congregation can be relied upon to read in Hebrew what is familiar, but I wasn't sure about this. On further investigation, we determined that I could read it but not confidently and quickly, and I'm apparently a sort of congregational canary: that I can read something doesn't mean anything, but that I can't is significant. Interesting; I didn't know that's how some people view me. :-) (I can read anything slowly, but I don't do unfamiliar text at typical reading speed yet.)

Yom Kippur starts tonight. To all who observe, tzom kal (an easy fast) and g'mar chatima tova (may the final seal be for good).

Interesting essay on reward and punishment and other issues: The Gift of Justice by Rabbi Micha Berger (aspaqlaria).

Monday night friends from the congregation invited us for dinner, so we joined them and then everyone but Dani went to shul. This meant going to the late service, which has the more formal (and more "classical Reform") music; I prefer the music of the early service but wanted to accept the invitation. I'm glad we did accept; it was a very nice dinner and Dani got to know some of my shul friends a little better (and vice-versa).

I didn't connect so much with last night's service, but I really did this morning. At several points I felt I was truly in the presence of the divine king, and I spent a lot of time thinking about things in the past year that I ought've done differently.

My torah reading went really well, and I got many compliments -- including two people telling me that they'd gotten chills listening to me. Those are good chills; I was reading the climax of the binding of Yitzchak and trying to do it expressively. I guess I succeeded. :-) I backed off a bit when I got up there and found a mike right there in my face, only an inch or two from my mouth; I was worried about overblowing it when the angel shouts to Avraham. But still, it worked.

( sermon )

lefkowitzga came for lunch and we got to spend a couple hours chatting. That was very nice; we haven't been able to just sit down and talk in a while.

( we ate... )

I've heard a little informal talk in the congregation about possibly going to a two-day Rosh Hashana at some to-be-defined future time. If that suggestion makes its way to the worship committee it should make for some interesting discussion. There are several points of view to consider:

( Read more... )

On Rosh Hashana we read the Akeidah, the story of the binding of Yitzchak (Gen 22). This is challenging text for me, and this year I'm doing part of the torah reading so it's even farther forward in my mind.

There are some big questions here. After finally giving Avraham and Sarah the son they'd longed for, how could God want Avraham to ritually sacrifice him? And how could Avraham quietly go along with this? What kind of a test is this, anyway?

( Read more... )

Yom Kippur was a good experience this year.

( this is long )

This afternoon I put up the sukkah. Yay new sukkah! I got one surprise, and maybe before next year I'll ask a friend with the right tools to help me. I ordered an 8x8 sukkah frame, the kind with the metal poles (technically "tubing") and connectors that you just hand-tighten (no tools!). I had gotten the impression that it was about 7 feet high, but it's really 8. If I had paid more attention to the packing list I would have figured that out two weeks ago when it came. The problem with an 8-foot-high sukkah is that I'm 5'3". Even standing on a ladder, it was difficult for me to get the s'chach (roofing material) up there. (Ok, it's not a big ladder. I have this thing about ladders. I really want a sukkah I can put up with a step-stool.) I'm hoping that a certain friend of mine has saws that can cut metal, so we can just lop a foot off of the vertical poles. Later -- I got it up for this year. And hey, it meant I didn't have to cut down the lattice I use for the walls this year. :-) (I had the hand-saw ready.)

So now I have a sukkah big enough that we can theoretically have guests more than singly or pair-wise (if friendly), though I still only have the one card table. I may pick up another card table and a couple more folding chairs. (The size increase was a side-effect; the goal was a free-standing sukkah that's easy to put up, and I succeeded there.)

We are now in the midst of the days of awe, when Jews look at the wrongs of the past year and try to correct errors so we can move forward.

If I have wronged you by word or deed and not made it right, please bring the matter to my attention so I can address it. My email address is in my profile.