Entries tagged with synagogues

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high holy days and Sukkot

The high holy days went very well for me this year. It's hard to explain in words, but they did what they are supposed to do. I feel like I'm in a good place for 5777.

I co-led the Ruach service on both Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur mornings again (with the associate rabbi). That went well, and I was particularly tickled by the person who privately asked me if next year I could do it all by myself. (She likes the way I lead.) I pointed out that it would be rather awkward for me to bring that up with the folks in charge.

We started this service several years ago because the sanctuary service, still being done out of Gates of Repentance which has many deficiencies, was hard for some of us to engage with. It's not about formal music; I'm all about some of the formal music of the season. But it sometimes felt like we were being performed at instead of being invited in. So we started this service to do things differently. This year we bought the new machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh, for the whole congregation (previously we had enough copies for the Ruach service, and previous to that we used draft photocopies). And we've just concluded our first year with a real cantor, who is working hard to make the sanctuary service more engaging. So, it is possible that in the not-too-distant future we could get to a point where we no longer need this service. Some (like my fan from the previous paragraph) might think that's a bad thing for me, but I'd actually be delighted to bring more of the congregation to the level that our smaller cohort strives for. We shall see. None of this has been discussed yet; it's just ideas kicking around.

On Sukkot morning I went to Chabad. I met the Chabad rabbi a few years ago when I took what would be the first of (so far) three classes that I've taken from him. He's friendly and welcoming and he encourages women to learn. So I showed up (unannounced) and I felt welcome. There was one other woman there at the beginning, and we got two more by the end, with maybe 15 or 20 men. (Kind of hard to see with the mechitza and some left immediately after.) Most of us went to the sukkah after for a little food and drink, and the conversation was friendly. I chatted with a woman who's a cancer researcher (i.e. she works, in a professional position) and we talked about technology and medicine and conducting clinical trials and stuff.

I only had one problem. Well, two I guess -- I can never keep up with Orthodox prayer; I'm just not that fast. So that wasn't unexpected. But the other was the language barrier. Not Hebrew; while I'm by no means fluent I do ok there. No, I mean that even though they were praying in Hebrew I found it really hard to follow because of pronunciation. There were times when I knew exactly what words I should be hearing, had the siddur in front of me -- and couldn't match up what I was hearing with what I was reading. I wouldn't have expected that to be the steepest learning curve...

(This isn't just about Ashkenazi versus Sephardi pronunciation; I've got a reasonable handle on that. Chabad seems to change vowels compared to other Ashkenazim, so that's two steps removed for me and my Sephardi pronunciation.)

This Chabad, unfortunately, doesn't have their own Friday-night services; part of the reason I'd gone was to scout for alternatives to what are often unsatisfying Friday services at my own synagogue. Bummer. But there will be other occasions to visit; I went on Sukkot because my congregation and another join forces for the festivals, alternating locations, and I wasn't interested in walking two miles each way to the other synagogue.

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Is this just a Reform+American thing?

Dear Jewish LJ brain trust,

For a while I've been hearing leaders of the Reform movement talk about how we have to "innovate" and "rethink congregations" in order to build for the long-term. Young families and millennials, we're told, aren't really into joining congregations, so we need to be more appealing, a mix of actual changes and marketing. Most visibly (in my congregation) this means more Shabbat services targeted to specific subsets of the community (young families, youth group, others), though it also affects the school, program overall, and finances.

Tonight I came across this article on this theme, and it got me wondering:

Is this just a Reform thing? Or maybe just an American Reform thing? I'm not aware of Orthodox congregations changing what they do -- nor perceiving a need to, because (it appears to me) community is already a core value there. So, sure, people come and go, but I don't perceive that they're as worried about "losing the young". On the other hand, I don't frequent an Orthodox synagogue and these sorts of things would be more visible to insiders. So I haven't picked up on it on my visits to Orthodox synagogues, but would I?

Any insights and/or "reports from the field" would be most welcome.

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Mi Yodeya field trip: synagogue notes

I wrote previously about the Mi Yodeya celebration. I also joined Isaac and others for services while there, which was interesting and educational.

( places visited )

A couple observations:

First, none of the services felt rushed, but I do not know how people pray that quickly. I couldn't keep up without vocalizing everything, while the service leader was spitting out the Hebrew cleanly and clearly. I guess it comes in time? But on the other hand, if I haven't gotten it by now...

They sure do a lot of kaddishes. If I recall correctly, at the end of the Sunday-morning service there was a bit of torah learning followed by kaddish d'rabbanan, and I came away with the impression that the former was there mainly to justify the latter. (Kaddish is said at certain points in the service, mainly to act as a division, but it also may be said after any learning.) Unlike in Reform services, kaddish is said either by one person or the mourners as a group. I found myself wondering how that's coordinated -- who gets which ones, how do they know, and if you particularly want one that day, how do you signal that?

Both of these synagogues -- and, now that I think about it, several other Orthodox synagogues I've been to -- had a bunch of different siddurim (prayer books). The content is basically the same in all of them, but sometimes there are minor variations, they may or may not include English translations (which may or may not vary subtly), they may or may not contain commentary, and so on. This has a few consequences:

You actually get, and have to make, a choice. Friday night I just took a book; it was all Hebrew, no English translation. That's fine for the prayers (I'm going to do those in Hebrew anyway), but I had to work a little more at navigation.
Some people bring their own, an option that simply had not occurred to me.
Because not everybody is using the same book, and also I assume because there's an assumption that if you're there you're fluent (which breaks down in some individual cases, of course), they don't call out instructions or page numbers -- you're just expected to be able to follow. I can do that for a Shabbat or weekday service, but might be challenged to do so on, say, the high holy days.

On Saturday morning I used the Koren siddur, which I've heard good things about. I actually found the Hebrew font just a tad hard to read, compared to Sim Shalom, Artscroll, and even Mishkan T'filah. It looked like a nice siddur otherwise, so maybe one to have available even if I don't use it regularly. Or maybe, were I to use it regularly, I'd find the font a little easier.

I'm glad I got the opportunity to experience all that.

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S'lichot

Technically the high-holy-day season began with the first day of the month of Elul a few weeks ago, but some think of it as starting with S'lichot, the recitation of penitential prayers that begins (for Ashkenazim) several days before Rosh Hashana. That was last night.

Until now I had only ever gone to Reform services for this, and this year I was feeling the need to experience something more traditional. My Orthodox shul of choice for such things is Young People's Synagogue, which I've visited a few times on Friday nights. They didn't publish a time for S'lichot on their web site, so I sent email to the president of the congregation to introduce myself and ask. I got a nice, prompt reply welcoming me and giving me the information I needed. He mentioned that Dan Leger would be speaking; Dan is a member of Dor Chadash who I know from the Tree of Life morning minyan (yeah, Pittsburgh is like that), so that was an extra bonus.

( would go again; in fact, will on Sukkot )

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keeping the enslaved down

Recently some local congregations have been banding together for yom tov services. Friday's service for the last day of Pesach was pretty unsatisfactory in a lot of ways, but in this post I'm going to write about just one practice, something I have seen in other congregations too and that needs to end.

Most blessings begin with a six-word formula, followed by the text that varies. The morning service contains a bunch of these, thanking God for making us free, lifting up the fallen, giving strength to the weary, and more. (There are 15 of these in a row.) The congregation says these together. In Friday's service, the leader decreed that the congregation would chant these in "Hebrish" -- first six words in Hebrew, then chanting the varying part in English.

I previously wrote about the horror that is chanted English prayer. This isn't that. This "Hebrish" practice, I've been told when I've asked, is motivated by a desire for inclusion: people don't know the Hebrew, the reasoning goes, so this makes prayer more accessible. Sounds admirable, right? But it's misguided and, dare I say, harmful. First off, the transliteration is right there in the siddur next to the Hebrew, precisely to make the Hebrew more accessible. But, more fundamentally, this practice serves to keep people down. How are they ever to learn the Hebrew if we never do it? Are we supposed to settle for the current state and never move past it? How would I have become proficient in the Hebrew prayers if, when I was trying to grow, my congregation had kept me on the English?

The Rambam (Maimonides) famously taught that the highest level of tzedakah (charity, loosely) is to help a poor person to get a job, rather than to give him money. Giving him money sustains him for a time; getting him a job helps him break out of the clutches of poverty (we hope). The Reform movement holds this up as a key value, even placing it in the section of the siddur where we study torah in the morning. Why, then, do we refuse to apply that same principle to those who are poor in knowledge? Why is it better to give them the handout of English prayer instead of helping them to pray in Hebrew?

In the past I have remained silent to avoid the appearance of challenging our leaders. I have tried and failed to persuade leaders who do this to reconsider. Friday, when they announced this and started into those prayers, I said to myself quietly "no more" and proceeded to chant the prayers in Hebrew. The long-time member of my congregation sitting next to me said "good for you!" and joined me. We were not disruptive, but I have high hopes that maybe, next time, he'll be sitting next to someone else and he too will say "no more" and forge ahead, and maybe someone sitting next to him will follow. And maybe, eventually, we'll be able to help people break out of the bonds of illiteracy, instead of continuing to keep them down by catering to their current weaknesses. We've just celebrated z'man cheruteinu, the season of our freedom, and it is time to apply that to our people now and not just looking back at Mitzrayim.

If reading the Hebrew text directly is too challenging for some, the transliteration is readily available. Or they could quietly read the English the way I quietly read the Hebrew. (I do that when I'm at services that are above my level, like last week at Village Shul.) But let's stop telling our congregants that they're too uneducated to handle the Hebrew; that only serves to reinforce the idea until they no longer want to try.

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Pesach services

We were in Toronto for the first days of Pesach. I had previously had an excellent experience at Beit HaMinyan (not just the one, but that's the one I wrote about), so I was looking forward to going there for Shabbat/Pesach morning. I checked their web site before leaving Pittsburgh to make sure they were in the same place; thus reassured, I went there Saturday morning to...an empty, locked building. They're very friendly and welcoming when they're there, but maybe not so great at updating their web site. Bummer. :-(

So I fell back to the Village Shul (Aish HaTorah), a place I'd been once before. This time, as last, I found them to be not too welcoming; this time I knew where to go in the building so the indifferent man standing at the entrance didn't hinder me, but nor did he respond to my greeting. At the kiddush (which was a standing-around affair this time, not a sit-down one), not a single person greeted me, even when I made eye contact. It can be hard for me to approach random people and start conversations; I greeted some and usually got responses but no one engaged. I don't know what (if anything) I was doing wrong; I think it was fairly obvious that I wasn't a regular, but I wasn't inappropriate in any way I could determine.

But all that said, I'm very glad I went for one reason: Tal.

Ok, I need to back up. T'filat Tal, aka the prayer for dew, is said exactly once during the year, on the morning of Pesach, in the musaf service. I had never heard it before. The Reform movement doesn't do musaf and didn't import that part into another part of the service (like is done with some other parts), and when we're in Toronto I don't always make it to Yom Tov services (but I insist on Shabbat). It's possible that I was at a Conservative service for Pesach once, and if so either they didn't do it or they didn't do anything special with it and I didn't notice.

So, this is either the first time I've encountered this prayer or the first time it registered. And it did in fact register. A resonant text (which I am unable to find online, help?), a beautiful and fitting melody (which I can't find a good version of online), and just the right amount of congregational engagement (a few words sung together at the end of each stanza) all came together into a heartfelt but not over-the-top prayer that felt entirely right to me. Wow.

And I think it needs all of those. As I said, the Reform movement doesn't do this text -- but let me predict how it would go down if we did. Because it's unfamiliar and people can't be assumed to be fluent, we would read (not sing) it, in English. Perhaps responsively, alternating stanzas. And it would fall completely flat, done that way. I'm not fluent and I'd never seen this text before either, but I listened to it in Hebrew while reading the English translation, and that worked. If I didn't need the translation then that'd be even better, but the text I read and the text I hear don't need to be the same language and that's just fine. Alas, mine seems to be a small-minority position in my movement, so I will probably not get the opportunity to experience this prayer in that setting, which makes me sad.

( some service anthropology )

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synagogues

visit to New Light (synagogue)

Last Friday I went to New Light, a small Conservative synagogue a block from my house. I've been there a few times and thought the people were friendly but the services didn't really speak to me. They hired a new rabbi a few months ago and I've heard good things about him, so I decided to satisfy my curiosity a little.

The service was more traditional than in the past, yet accessible. (A full-on Hebrew service like at YPS doesn't bother me, but if you don't know that most of your congregation is fluent, it might deter some.) They did all of the psalms in kabbalat shabbat, about half in English and half in Hebrew. The latter were all sung and I generally recognized the melodies and could join in. As in the past, the rabbi invited congregants (by name) to read parts in English. The rabbi spoke between kabbalat shabbat and ma'ariv about one of the psalms in kabbalat shabbat; I gather that he's spoken about most of the others (one at a time) on other nights. The talk was very interesting and I should really have made some notes sooner. Ma'ariv was pretty much what I'd expect anywhere on the traditional spectrum -- Hebrew, familiar melodies, individual amidah. I think they concluded with Adon Olam rather than Yigdal. They invited anybody who wanted to up onto the bima for kiddush (with individual cups of wine or juice).

I'd guess there were about 20-25 people there. They do a sit-down oneg after the service; somebody greeted me on the way into the room and invited me to sit with others, and the rabbi came and joined us. He was friendly and easy to talk with. We talked about his talk and ended up pulling out a tanach (bible) to look some things up. :-)

It was a positive experience. I would visit again.

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synagogues

Or l'Simcha

Friday night I went to Or l'Simcha, an unaffiliated but ancestrally-Conservative congregation, for services. I'd heard good things about Rabbi Diamond ("Rabbi Chuck") and this was a good week to check them out.

( Read more... )

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synagogues

another visit to YPS

A couple months ago I visited Young People's Synagogue and had a good experience, so I'd been thinking about going back this week. Then I was contacted by their webmaster, who followed a link to this journal from his referrer logs. He invited me to come back any time, I said I was thinking about this week, he invited me to dinner, and off we went.

( Read more... )

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synagogues

visit to Young Peoples Synagogue

Every week I walk past Young Peoples Synagogue on my way to my synagogue, so this week I decided to visit them instead. They're a lay-led Orthodox congregation.

( Read more... )

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shabbat,
synagogues

another synagogue visit

Friday night I went to Dor Chadash, a Reconstructionist congregation. I'd been there once before for a Purim service that a friend was involved in and once on a Shabbat morning (I think), both several years ago. They do not have Friday services every week; currently they're doing two a month, and I don't know if that's a summer thing or their normal routine.

There were about 20 people there, which someone said was a little small. Dor Chadash is a lay-led congregation, though the person who led this service is in rabbinic school (currently off and back home for the summer). There was also a cantorial soloist (someone said "cantor" but I don't think so). There was a lot of singing; many were melodies that I'd heard but don't know, but they were easy to pick up. I wish I had retained any of them. At least one felt like Carlebach to me, and I think I heard one or two of them at the kallah a couple weeks ago. Oh well; I'll encounter them again someday. Even if I would use a recorder on Shabbat, it's not like I would be inclined to carry one with me to services. :-)

They sang or read passages from several of the psalms in kabbalat shabbat (not all). At a rough guess the liturgical time was split fairly evenly between kabbalat shabbat and ma'ariv, which probably only stood out because of the kallah two weeks ago where kabblat shabbat was very much the lion's share with a quickie ma'ariv tacked on. Dor Chadash started the t'filah together but immediately went to individual recitation, and I was surprised by how fast they were (that is, how quickly people sat down). I was reciting it pretty efficiently (and skipping some bits once I picked up the vibe), but I was still the last to sit down. As a visitor I felt awkward, as if I'd come in from outside and slowed them down. But whoa was that fast -- maybe four minutes? (The cantorial soloist then chanted Magen Avot, which I suppose "covers" you if you didn't do your own, but I didn't know in advance that she would.)

There was a rabbi there (introduced as a guest), who gave a d'var torah. (He mentioned that he'd be reading torah the next morning; I don't know if he had any other leadership roles.) He talked about the beginning of Matot, which lists all the places Israel camped in the wilderness, and about the importance of remembering history and the effects of displacement. (It was more coherent coming out of his mouth then than my memory now.) Toward the beginning he asked the congregation how many places Israel camped and there was resounding silence, so I quietly answered. (I was in the second row, right in front of him.) I don't think I knew that I knew that until he asked, but I guess I did.

Everyone was very friendly after the service. I was the only newcomer, so it was easier for them to learn my name than for me to learn all of theirs. I talked for a while with a professor of music history at Pitt; we talked about 16th-century counterpoint, which I suspect surprised him as much as it surprised me for Shabbat conversation. And it turned out that the person who looked really familiar but I couldn't say why is a neighbor on my block, so we went home together. (And the friend who motivated that first visit was there too.)

Of the (local) places I've visited this summer, Dor Chadash is the clear winner so far. Next time I want to be somewhere other than my own congregation on a night when they are having services, I expect to go back.

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visiting other congregations

This summer my congregation is starting Shabbat evening services earlier than normal. I'm not sure why this idea is popular, but ours isn't the only place doing it. (I don't mean not waiting until sunset when sunset is late; I mean moving the start time earlier than it is during the rest of the year.)

Personally, I find summer shabbatot long already (Saturday afternoon into evening is a long haul), so I'll only add 2+ hours onto the beginning if there's something in it for me. "Something in it for me" can mean a real d'var torah or sermon (aimed at adults, not dumbed down for kids), or a significant role in conducting the service (hard to get), or a new experience. So while I've gone to my congregation a couple times (once to support my rabbi in something, and once because our educator rabbi would be leading), I've also been seeking out new experiences elsewhere.

I've been to Tree of Life for their monthly music and to New Light (a 5-minute walk from my house), both Conservative. This week I sought out Young Israel. I had the impression that they were on the liberal end of Orthodox and that there might be singing and others my age. I'm not sure why I had those impressions.

Not knowing the lay of the land I dressed conservatively (I would never wear long sleeves in summer otherwise). Good call; black hats were the norm. Their entry way had only one door into the worship space (no separate women's entrance) and the women's section was on the far side, so I quietly opened and closed the door and tried to be unobtrusive while making my way over there. (Mincha had already started.) I saw no obvious place to get a siddur on my way past and didn't want to disturb any of the men standing there. (None of them looked at me.) On the women's side I found assorted books, which might have been people's personal copies, but there was no one there to ask. So I picked up an Artscroll siddur from on top of a bookcase and joined the service.

The service -- the remainder of mincha, then kabbalat shabbat, then ma'ariv -- was very matter-of-fact. There was a little bit of singing during kabbalat shabbat (not as much as I've seen at other Orthodox congregations). Mincha started at 7:30 and we were leaving the building by 8:30. I felt like I'd had a decent prayer experience personally, but didn't feel part of a community. No one greeted me as we were filing out, though someone did on the street half a block later.

I know that the conventional gender roles in the Orthodox community mean many women don't come Friday night, and if you want to meet a community you go Saturday morning. I have a place I'm very happy with for Saturday mornings, and I can't see anything currently that would cause me to skip that for someone else's regular service. (If there were a simcha involved for a friend that would of course be different.)

So far this summer, aside from the kallah, my Friday-night experiences have been "eh". They would have been "eh" if I'd gone to my own synagogue every week, so I haven't lost anything, but it's still a little disappointing. (On the other hand, it's confirmation that my own congregation is well above average when it's in "normal mode"...) Does anybody in this city celebrate Shabbat, as opposed to just getting through the service, at an hour that doesn't have one leaving the building with the sun high in the sky?

(Yes, I know you're allowed to accept Shabbat early. Coming out of ma'ariv into sunlight feels weird to me, and as I said before, I'm reluctant to add a couple hours to Shabbat this time of year.)

Oh well. There are still a few weeks left in which to explore.

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visit to Village Shul

We were in Toronto for a few days, so Shabbat morning I went to services at the Village Shul, which is run by Aish HaTorah. We don't have Aish in Pittsburgh, so I was curious. I understand them to be in methodology kind of similar to Chabad -- friendly outreach to people at various levels of observance -- without the chassidism and the strange moshiach stuff. So I figured I'd go there and see what it was like, and if it was horrible I had a backup a few blocks away.

( Read more... )

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Shabbat

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random bits

My congregation recently started selling gift cards for the local grocery chain. You know the deal: you pay face value for the card and they get a cut -- everyone wins. (Well, except the taxpayers who cover the amount the store gets to deduct as a charitable contribution.) I figured the congregation must get 1%, maybe 2% out of this deal. I learned today that they get 5%. I didn't think grocery stores even had 5% margins... Sure, their prices are probably inflated to cover this, the discounts for the affinity card, and the "fuel perks" (10 cents a gallon off one fill-up for each $50 spent; I assume they share that cost with the gas chain), but their prices still don't seem that high compared to other local options. I guess they're gambling on people not getting the affinity cards, not using up the gift cards, and not cashing in the fuel perks.

Locals who rent: where are the good landlords, properties, or listings for Squirrel Hill and Shadyside? I know what shows up in Google, but if you've got recommendations or anti-recommendations, please send 'em along. I'm trying to help out a friend of a friend who'll be moving here soon (for one year), but I've been out of the renting scene for quite a while now.

As long as I'm doing the "dear lazyweb" thing... this one's for me: can you tell me anything interesting about synagogues in Newton Center, MA, within walking distance of Hebrew College? Names, addresses, and affiliations I've got, and some of them have web sites, but reports from people who've actually visited any of them are more interesting.

Cheese update, for those who asked: I took the remaining paneer, sliced it, and fried it in butter. This was quite yummy, and the cheese held up just fine (did not get gooey and melty). The thinnest slice I tried was about a quarter inch; somewhere between that and half an inch seemed to give the best performance.

Current Location: Yerushalayim

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Friday and Saturday

( Read more... )

Current Location: Yerushalayim

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Shabbat at HUC

( service geeking )

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israel,
synagogues

Jerusalem synagogue

We're going to be in Jerusalem for two Shabbatot. For the first we're going to the wall (Friday) and HUC (Saturday). For the second, I forget what the Friday plans are and there's another congregation Saturday morning. My rabbi said he'll take whoever wants to go there -- but for me, he said, he has a different suggestion, an egalitarian Orthodox congregation. This sounds similar to a congregation

magid described in Boston. This sounds nifty!

Yeah, I'm going. I want to see what this is like, and I'd like to meet more members of the traditional community who think women have a role in worship.

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trip to Toronto

We went to Toronto this weekend to visit family. It was a fun trip. ( Read more... )

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liturgy,
synagogues

Shabbat services

Friday night

murmur311 took me to Valley Temple for services. The same rabbinic intern who was there last year was there; they got him for a second year. (He's entering his final year of rabbinic school this fall, so this will presumably be his last stint as an intern.) Brad is an engaging service leader, and it's obvious that he and the congregation have clicked a lot in the last year. I was surprised that he recognized me and remembered that I was here for the Sh'liach K'hilah program; unless Jenny said something to him recently, that's a pretty good memory!

( service anthropology )

Jenny and I chatted with the rabbi some after the service. He seems like a really friendly person; he'll be a good catch for some congregation. (Hmm, we'll be looking for an associate rabbi to start in a year, which is when he graduates...) We ended up talking a bit about rabbinic job-hunting and he explained how HUC's matching process works. (Ask me later if you're interested. He said it was similar to what medical schools do for residency placements, if that helps.) I said I might be seeing this process from the other side in the coming year (ok, I'm being presumptuous and assuming I can get onto the search committee), but this is interesting for other reasons too. He and Jenny had both recently read a book called The New Rabbi that he recommends highly. (He named the author. I forget. I'll look this up on Amazon when I get home if one of you hasn't fed it to me by then. :-) )

Shabbat morning we went to Temple Sholom, one of three Reform congregations within a block. That seems unusual to me; I think at least one of them split off from one of the others, but I didn't get the full history. (In Pittsburgh, by comparison, there are five Reform synagogues -- two in the city about two miles from each other, and the other three each in a different suburb ten miles out or so.)

Their rabbi said to tell my rabbi hi. I guess on the one hand you'd expect a movement's rabbis to generally know each other, but on the other hand there are what, 1200 or more Reform rabbis in the US? That's a lot of people to know or even know of.

( service anthropology )

During the torah study there was some discussion of why this story of a non-Jewish prophet would be part of the torah. One of the people there thought Bilaam had had a true change of heart (hey, that sounds familiar :-) ), though I think I remember reading last week that Rashi blames Bilaam for the Israelite men going on to sin with the Moabite women, so I'm not so sure that works. (Or maybe I'm misremembering and Rashi blames Balak. I don't have a copy of Rashi to check -- at all, let alone here in Cincinnati.) I suggested that while the torah is primarily about Yisrael, including a passage showing that even a gentile "gets it" about God's goodness and might could be valuable to later readers (and to b'nei yisrael too, if they were of a mind to pay attention). The rabbi thought this was a good interpretation. (I didn't bring up Rashi.)

I wonder, in thinking about it, if the Israelites at the time were even aware of Bilaam's curses-turned-blessings aimed at them. I don't see how they would be unless told. While this is not the generation that rebelled against God, they still might have been boosted somewhat by the endorsement from outside. Hmm.

I liked both congregations that I visited this Shabbat. I noticed that both have rabbinic interns in addition to rabbis; I guess proximity to HUC has something to do with that. :-) The intern I met Friday night knows one of the student rabbis we're going to have this week (not surprising; they're presumably classmates) and had good things to say about him. Presumably we'll meet them all tomorrow.