End of the holiday season

[magid]

Note to self: always make plans for at least one meal with other people for long yom tov weekends; it forces structuring time in ways that are particularly useful for a three-day holiday.

I was pretty lazy for Shmini Atzeret, making up for it on Simchat Torah, which included much davening and seeing of many people.

Simchat Torah night, I went to Hillel, taking the more... focused hakafot option when they split off. I wish it were different, but I no longer seem to be as inspired to do lots of dancing at Simchat Torah as I used to. On the plus side, I got to talk with some people I haven't seen in a while, and ended up inviting them to Shabbat dinner (so now I have to figure out something that feels appropriate for parshat Noach and Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan; any suggestions other than olives, wine, and serving things in pairs appreciated).

After those finished, I went to the big bash at Tremont St. I love that they have the street closed off for the dancing, even if I don't dance myself. And there are tons of people there, all happy that it's yom tov, which is great.

Simchat Torah morning, I made a point of getting to Tehillah pretty much on time, knowing it's not easy getting the quorum when starting that early (8:15). Unfortunately, not enough other women were, and we had to wait a long time. A really long time, actually (50 minutes). On the plus side, this gave me lots of time to go over the aliyah that I'd not practiced enough before, that I'd not been sure I'd read.

Technical details of how Simchat Torah was handled:
- Atah haraytah switched off between men and women (I had a pasuk!)
- Hakafot switched off between women and men leading, with the last two put together (also
for singing the verses of Me Pe Ayl (really, there's no good way to transliterate that title without unfortunateness of some sort in English); we didn't sing Ha-aderet v'ha-emunah, sadly, so I don't know whether that would've also)
- There were three tables for aliyot before the main one, one for the men and two for the women, with people cycling through then going out to make kiddush (I was just about the last of the rishons, and I read it myself! Whee!)
- There was a mix of women and men getting aliyot in the final round. Before kol ha-naarim there was a request for tall people to hold a tallit, and I ended up being the only woman holding it (another first for me), for that aliyah, and through chatan Torah and chatan Breishit, except that it was kallat Torah and chatan Breishit, both of whom were not only called up with the enormously long and involved traditional words of praise, but carried to the shulchan in a chair, as if at a wedding. Oh, and while we started out just waving the tallit during the singing in between the days of Creation, by the end we were circling the shulchan :-)

I left after musaf kedushah; I was just done, after almost five hours at shul, and while I could
see how many were amused by the shatz using classic TV theme songs for it, that wasn't what I was in the mood for, at all.

One small note about Shabbat: I went to Hillel, and it was interesting that they used the Sefardi aliyot, rather than Ashkenazi, though the rest of the year, it's all Ashkenazi. Which had the first seven days all in the cohen aliyah; it amazes me to go through it so quickly after studying it for so many months at Nishmat.

As usual, I kinda wish there were a bit more time before Sukkot, so I could appreciate it without being as exhausted by it all.

Comments

[cellio]

Oh, and while we started out just waving the tallit during the singing in between the days of Creation, by the end we were circling the shulchan :-)

*laugh* It sounds like a fun service! Yashar koach on leining!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've seen it happen at a bunch of shuls, but this was the first time I got to do it :-).

And baruch tihiyeh :-)

[(Anonymous)]

For Noach, perhaps a platter of colorful salad vegetables arranged in a rainbow. For Cheshvan, maybe bitter delicacies.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice ideas. Thank you.

If it weren't so out of season, a rainbow of fruit would be another possibility. And maybe something like mustard greens for bitter. (Or be extremely daring and try something with bitter melon, but that feels like much more of a stretch.)

[feygele.livejournal.com]

Noach: dig out your playskool or lego animals and have them grazing around the serving plates?

[magid.livejournal.com]

*giggle*

I don't have any of those. I do have some small stuffed animals, but none are particularly paired.... Must ponder.