Hoshanot

[magid]

First days of Sukkot went well, modulo the new porch light not working as it should have. I had some lanterns that use tea lights, so while it was darker than I would've chosen, it wasn't an actual problem.

The one thing that happened of note is about hoshanot, one of the Sukkot-specific bits of davening (about which more anon). On the first day, I was one of a couple of women with lulav and etrog (many women are co-owners with a partner, or borrow someone else's). After Hallel, the gabbai announced that people should stack the chairs at each end of the row so it would be easier to circle. He made a point of saying this should happen in the women's section, too, which surprised me. I told him that I don't do hoshanot circles around nothing; the men are circling a sefer Torah. He said that the minhag of the minyan is that there are women doing hoshanot, and I managed to refrain from asking him since when (this was an undergrad, who probably wasn't born when I started coming to this minyan). And the ritual committee chair said that it was something that has always been a possibility. So a woman was given one of the sifrei Torah to hold (at the front of the women's section, as it turned out, since there's no convenient place like the shulchan in the men's section), and I felt obliged to circle. Which felt a bit foolish, with two (or was it three?) women holding lulav and etrog, not even close to an actual circle. I did discover it's not as tricky as I'd thought to hold lulav, etrog, and siddur at the same time, though I didn't have to keep a tallit from slipping, too. Weirdly, I was a bit annoyed, about not being asked whether I even wanted to circle, not that there was time to have a dialogue about it in the middle of shacharit (we do hoshanot after hallel).

Lo, I have circled. And not figured out anything about hoshanot in the process.

(Last night, two other long-term minyanites were over, who'd been away for first days. They, too, were surprised to hear that this is our minhag! So at least it's not my memory that's faulty...)

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the minhag is to create a new custom each year and then claim it's always been done that way.

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

One of those games where you can randomly decide on new rules, and everyone else has to guess what they are?
New Rule! Hoshanot for women!
If the gabbai was an undergrad, maybe the shul he davened in as he grew up did it that way...

[gingicat]

BTW, you mentioned Simchat Torah morning services that sounded really interesting before you ran off... are there details on the website?

[magid.livejournal.com]

He was pretty clear that he was ruling for this minyan. And [neilah-leader, aka ritual committee chair, aka one of the people who's been with the minyan longest] agreed, so apparently it's been on the books for a while.

Otoh, I can imagine how entertaining a game of 1000 Jewish Blank White Cards would be :-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

There's nothing in particular at the Harvard Hillel site about davening, and Tehillah just says that they're starting at 8:15, with hakafot expected around 10ish. It's the regular davening for both of them, with hakafot and aliyot and reading the last parts and reading the first parts. Not sure which part sounded more interesting...