magid

I forget between times about Shmini Atzeret davening. It's almost completely Generic Holiday Davening, with the amidot for shacharit and musaf changed to holiday wording, Hallel added in, plus birkat kohanim and yizkor. The only day-specific extra is geshem the prayer for rain that inaugurates the seasonal change in wording in the amidah (adding in the phrase "who makes the wind to blow and the the rain to fall"*). It's based on the Israeli weather, of course, where it rains only in the winter, which has to be enough for the year. Now that the holiday of booth living (and the harvest) are over, it's time for the rains.
Since there wasn't Shabbat in the middle of Sukkot, we also read Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) Shabbat morning, which is noticeably long (I always think it will be ten chapters, like Esther and Shir haShirim (Song of Songs), but it's twelve). This year's reaction: I could've edited this down a bit; some of the themes repeat a lot.
I was invited out to Shmini Atzeret lunch, the annual visit (I wish it were not so infrequent) to the people near the Washington Street Art Center. The girls are growing up.
I stopped by the Washington Street Art Center after lunch, and the current display is perfect for those who like disturbing things done to dolls and stuffed animals.
Actual naps! Both afternoons! Excellent.
I've devoured the new Diana Wynne Jones book, The Pinhoe Egg, and it falls about middle of the pack for me. Not amazing, but far from her low end. One character is named Cat, who is very confusingly a boy. I also read Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword, which I liked, but it felt a little too elided.
Simchat Torah night I went to Hillel and chose the compact hakafot when that group split off. I wasn't dancing anyway, and this left me more options. Plus, there was the right level of silliness in those hakafot. After Torah reading, I walked over to Tremont St. (enjoying the timeliness of the windiness, given Tefillat Geshem that morning) to see all the dancing. I love how the street is closed off for something Jewish. Plus I got to see a bunch of people. It was cold out; I went home when they went in to finish their davening.
I did something new Simchat Torah morning, going to a ladies' kaffeklatsch. Interesting conversation over tea, with such accomplished women. I felt rather mundane, in fact. And it felt like the right level of socializing (I can't really face dealing with large numbers of people at official meals on Simchat Torah).
I went again to Hillel, debating whether to daven at Tehillah, which was also meeting in the building. But I ended up with the regular orthodox minyan. I suspect I'll go to Tehillah sometime this fall, however.
I really liked how the rabbi did kol ha'naarim (all the children): there were enough of them who weren't babies that he did each word that they could repeat. Very nice.
The guy calling up chatan Torah and chatan Breishit was playing around some, and I didn't like that. I was amused that chatan Torah was not only dressed in a kittel but also carried in a chair to the shulchan, a tallis held over him.
My favorite aliyah of the year is chatan Breishit; there's time enough to think on the enormity of Creation without the rush to get through the rest of the parsha. I davened musaf alone, then went to Tremont St., and ended up hearing chatan Breishit three times. Very happy-making.

* Unless one has the custom of saying something in that spot year round; then one changes from "who causes to the dew to fall" to "who makes the wind to blow and the the rain to fall".