Brookline minyan
Mar. 21st, 2010 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidYesterday I went to the first meeting of the new partnership minyan in Brookline, held at the senior center on Centre St. It was a beautiful day for a walk, sunny and warm, definitely already spring with all the crocuses and snowdrops and even some daffodils (plus I saw some forsythia on the verge of blooming).
I arrived a bit late, having woken up when I'd intended to leave, but did make it before the beginning of shacharit. It was already crowded, on both sides, so I ended up sitting on a windowsill at the back, right by one of two doors. This meant that there was a lot of traffic and a fair bit of noise from the hallway (there were masses of kids) until we closed the door. However, it was locked from the other side, so I ended up opening the door a lot. Other than the space not really having a large enough footprint, the ceiling was low, which meant things felt even more crowded to me (my apartment has higher ceilings, and I've gotten used to that), and the guy doing hagbah had to be very careful. The two doors were on one side, which meant, given the layout, that the men had to walk through either the front or the back of the women's section. Come to think of it, I don't think that was facing east, and facing east would have divided the room into more square halves, with a door in each one. Though perhaps that was chosen because of which wall the aron was on, which was also in the men's section (which, I assume, is why a man had to do peticha). If the aron isn't fixed, or there were some way of having a second one, I wonder whether it would work better the other way? (Or perhaps, given the larger-than-expected number of people, they'll try for a different space by the next time they meet, May 8?).
The liturgy was the standard stuff, though with the prayers for the state of Israel and the misheberach for sick people said as a group rather than by one person (not sure why that was chosen, particularly). The dvar Torah* was before Torah reading, and was a fairly long drash (to me, used to 5-minute talks during davening) about the nature of korbanot. I was surprised to find that the Torah reading wasn't gender-matched readers and those getting aliyot, which is how I ended up with shvii next to a guy who read nicely (from a beautifully clear sefer Torah)(I'd felt a bit odd accepting, feeling like the first time this minyan was meeting that locals should be honored, but the gabbai asked two separate times, so I accepted). The only other part that surprised me was that whoever was holding the sefer Torah during the prayer for the country stood up, which I do not think is appropriate (though sometimes that's just an oversight, not reminding the person to stay seated).
Another plus: seeing a number of people I know, some of whom I haven't seen in a while (plus finally meeting the twins I've been reading about :-). There wasn't time for serious catching up at kiddush, but at least touching base was good. One odd thing: a guy who congratulated me on my aliyah... three separate times. Still haven't figured that one out.
* More about the drash: This week's parasha starts with all sorts of details about bringing korbanot. Interestingly, it starts with "when a man brings a korban," with the Hebrew word being "adam", not "eesh". Which took us back to Breishit, and the first Adam. There was a bit about how he was originally to tend the garden, but in this case, the work had been done for him already, and there were linguistic ties to Adam being a living exemplar of choosing to do what he was told. Except that that didn't work out so well. And then just three sentences later, there are his sons, giving spontaneous offerings of their work, now that work needed to be done (which made me think how, in some ways, prayer is the perfect offering these days, with so many people involved in intellectual work than in physical work). There was discussion of why the one was accepted over the other, and how many of us aren't comfortable with the idea of animal sacrifice at all, which is why R. Kook's opinion that only the grain sacrifice will be reinstated is comforting. The woman giving the drash said that it could be seen the other way round, with this bringing us back to a physical offering system that we could also benefit from. (This is totally a mangling of the flow of the drash; it was interesting and had me thinking about it more than usual, anyway.)
I arrived a bit late, having woken up when I'd intended to leave, but did make it before the beginning of shacharit. It was already crowded, on both sides, so I ended up sitting on a windowsill at the back, right by one of two doors. This meant that there was a lot of traffic and a fair bit of noise from the hallway (there were masses of kids) until we closed the door. However, it was locked from the other side, so I ended up opening the door a lot. Other than the space not really having a large enough footprint, the ceiling was low, which meant things felt even more crowded to me (my apartment has higher ceilings, and I've gotten used to that), and the guy doing hagbah had to be very careful. The two doors were on one side, which meant, given the layout, that the men had to walk through either the front or the back of the women's section. Come to think of it, I don't think that was facing east, and facing east would have divided the room into more square halves, with a door in each one. Though perhaps that was chosen because of which wall the aron was on, which was also in the men's section (which, I assume, is why a man had to do peticha). If the aron isn't fixed, or there were some way of having a second one, I wonder whether it would work better the other way? (Or perhaps, given the larger-than-expected number of people, they'll try for a different space by the next time they meet, May 8?).
The liturgy was the standard stuff, though with the prayers for the state of Israel and the misheberach for sick people said as a group rather than by one person (not sure why that was chosen, particularly). The dvar Torah* was before Torah reading, and was a fairly long drash (to me, used to 5-minute talks during davening) about the nature of korbanot. I was surprised to find that the Torah reading wasn't gender-matched readers and those getting aliyot, which is how I ended up with shvii next to a guy who read nicely (from a beautifully clear sefer Torah)(I'd felt a bit odd accepting, feeling like the first time this minyan was meeting that locals should be honored, but the gabbai asked two separate times, so I accepted). The only other part that surprised me was that whoever was holding the sefer Torah during the prayer for the country stood up, which I do not think is appropriate (though sometimes that's just an oversight, not reminding the person to stay seated).
Another plus: seeing a number of people I know, some of whom I haven't seen in a while (plus finally meeting the twins I've been reading about :-). There wasn't time for serious catching up at kiddush, but at least touching base was good. One odd thing: a guy who congratulated me on my aliyah... three separate times. Still haven't figured that one out.
* More about the drash: This week's parasha starts with all sorts of details about bringing korbanot. Interestingly, it starts with "when a man brings a korban," with the Hebrew word being "adam", not "eesh". Which took us back to Breishit, and the first Adam. There was a bit about how he was originally to tend the garden, but in this case, the work had been done for him already, and there were linguistic ties to Adam being a living exemplar of choosing to do what he was told. Except that that didn't work out so well. And then just three sentences later, there are his sons, giving spontaneous offerings of their work, now that work needed to be done (which made me think how, in some ways, prayer is the perfect offering these days, with so many people involved in intellectual work than in physical work). There was discussion of why the one was accepted over the other, and how many of us aren't comfortable with the idea of animal sacrifice at all, which is why R. Kook's opinion that only the grain sacrifice will be reinstated is comforting. The woman giving the drash said that it could be seen the other way round, with this bringing us back to a physical offering system that we could also benefit from. (This is totally a mangling of the flow of the drash; it was interesting and had me thinking about it more than usual, anyway.)
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 04:54 pm (UTC)I wasn't paying enough attention to detail yesterday: I know that Tehillah has prayers for Israel, US government, Israeli soldiers, and USian soldiers, which feels a bit like overkill. The Brookline minyan didn't have all of those, but other than the prayer for Israel, I couldn't tell you which others were said.
It seems like there's more partnership minyanim starting up these days. No clue what the community is like near you, but perhaps there are other people who would be interested?
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 11:06 pm (UTC)it feels coercive and kinda wrong.
(i still sit down during the prayer for the state of israel, which is really uncomfortable, since i'm having to disrespect the sefer torah to opt out of a political and religious message i strongly do not want to be implicated it.)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 07:01 pm (UTC)TheWanderingJew
ps - were the twins you mentioned the ones I babysit for?
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 07:04 pm (UTC)And since I'm not sure who you are, I have no idea whether these twins are the ones you babysit for.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-01 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-01 07:48 pm (UTC)And thank you :-)