YK 5767

[magid]

• Being late in the morning is not ideal from the davening point of view, but much easier on my feet.
  
• The pre-fast meal didn't agree with me, er, at all. Strangely, this didn't have any noticeable effect the next day on how the fast went.
  
• Davening upstairs in the little balcony crammed with unused furniture kept me from the distractions of having people around me, but there was more to look at outside.
  
• I know how much Y.K. [a person, not the holiday] loves to daven musaf on the Yomim Noraim. I wonder how weird it is for him, a kohen, to stand there during birkat kohanim? (Note: there are other solutions used in other minyanim, but here the ruling has been that when a kohen leads davening with birkat kohanim in it, someone else leads that part, and he's silent, not joining his fellow kohanim in giving the blessing. I don't know whether he answers, though.)
  
• As usual, kriyat ha'Torah at mincha is annoying. This year, at least, it was only that, not inspiring something closer to hot anger that on this day, of all days, the reading is so obviously directed at men only. (The ervahs are important, sure, but.)
  
• I find myself less likely to chat on YK. I don't always have enough kavanah, but there's still an odd headspace peculiar to YK (and not just the floatiness from fasting) that makes me not want small talk.
  
• The intensity of the repeated phrases at the end always gets me. And the amazing single tekiah that just kept going was the perfect cap to it.
  
• Neilah is always slow and fast, rushing headlong through the last moments of the day's repentance time as the clock crawls to the end of the fast.
  
• Walking home during the break was a good thing, giving me time to walk the soreness of standing out, and to feel the wind and sun on my face. Much better than attempting to nap at the law school.