Weekend highlights
Sep. 23rd, 2002 10:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidIn the end, I got all sorts of food cooked before Shabbat (far more than I needed. I realized this after I came out of the cooking haze.), and everything else done (remembered to set the light in the sukkah, just in time).
A quiet dinner, appreciating the weather's perfectness: I expect to have to have lots of layers to combat sitting in the chill, and here I was comfortable in one layer. Perfect (though I suspect I'll pay for this next year; this year is a leap year, adding a month, so next year the holidays will be "late" in the solar/secular calendar).
Shul in the morning. No lulav and etrog used on Shabbat, but there was the usual holiday addition of Hallel (a compliation of psalms, mostly), special Torah reading, and birkat cohanim (priestly blessing). And there was the Sukkot-specific hakafah (a special one for Shabbat, though).
Hakafah (pl. hakafot). I don't have any real idea of how to explain this, since I don't understand it myself. A description of the non-Shabbat ones: a Torah is taken out and held in the middle of the room, by the shulchan (lit. "table," where the Torah is read). All the guys (in a traditional ortho minyan) with lulav and etrog circle the Torah, while lining (Leader says, congregation repeats. Lather, rinse, repeat, as it were.) a given alphabetical poem-y thing that tends to have a couple of words/line, each one preceded and followed by the words "hoshana." There's a different one each day, depending on what day of the week the first day of Sukkot is. I don't know why we do this, really.
On the last day of Sukkot proper, there are 7 circuits done, and willow branches beaten on the floor. And on Simchat Torah there are another 7 circuits, but they are with the Torahs, not lulav and etrog (and lots lots lots of dancing, and singing, and Jewish-geekoid humor).
Kiddush in the sukkah at Hillel (a huge octagonal one), which had the doorways in different places this year, which was the tiniest bit disorienting. The best part was that I got a chance to talk with Jesse K, who is in the theater department at Brandeis. All sorts of inside information (makes a couple of seasons more understandable), which is always fun, plus knowing I'm likely to see a real play of his staged in the spring (I've seen skits and stuff of his, when he was an undergrad at Harvard). Very cool.
Shabbat lunch was the only meal I had a couple of guests for. I tried to get more people after shul, but there ended up being only 5 of us (M&M, her friend Shira, and Jason-the-director). An easy group, conversation just flowed, the food was good (artichokes as the appetizer course, buffet for the rest), all was nice... except it was too damn hot. I have to rig up some blinds or something next year: when the sun is out, it gets uncomfortable on my porch (close to burning my feet on the wood planks of the porch). We said grace, then went inside to the living room with the ceiling fan on; immediate relief. We had the sorbet buffet in there, with a minimum of chocolate stains. Unfortunately, I was unable to interest anyone in playing games, so off they went after lunch (and a discussion of ketubot (wedding contracts), fancy put-on-the-wall ones vs printed put-in-the-safe-deposit-box ones.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet. I read, sometimes inside, outside once the sun was no longer directly on the porch. I thought I should've gone for a walk or something, but just didn't want to move that much. Solitary dinner, reading (briefly visited by a ladybug) and eating challah and honey (feeling rather like a queen from a nursery rhyme).
Off to shul again, carrying lulav and etrog this time. Services with similar oddities to the day before, except that there was the lulave and etrog (on which more after this), and the song sung to introduce Ashrei (a psalm) after Torah reading, which is only sung on non-Shabbat holidays (in our minyan). I was disappointed that the guy leading chose a tune I didn't know at all and wasn't distinctive enough to pick up, either. *sigh* Have to wait until Passover...
Lulav and etrog. I was one of two women to have brought them. I know that some women use their menfolks' (husband/brother/father, etc), but there were fewer on the women's side than usual. I lent mine out to a couple of people to shake.
Then we got to the hakafah. The gabbai (sexton? someone who makes sure things run smoothly, basically) said how to move the chairs so there'd be room for the circuit, on both the men's and the women's sides. I wasn't planning on marching around (I've always been kinda pleased I *didn't* have to balance lulav, etrog, and prayerbook in only two hands.), but the other woman wanted to, and a woman was willing to hold a Torah in the middle (when I said I wouldn't march around nothing). Interestingly, I think this is the first time this has happened in the regular minyan. There have been women's hakafot, but in a separate room (and with a lot more women...). So, feeling rather foolish, since it was only 2 of us circling (there were at least 70 men, which made a complete circuit, rather than our little points describing a circuit over time), I did it.
Lunch in the sukkah (again driven in by sunshine, despite the addition of a tablecloth hung to block some of the sun), then preparing for the open sukkah. I'd gotten a variety of junk foods (salty and sweet), figuring there might be more people coming than had expressed interest (plus I'd invited people at shul). Well, I was wrong. I had a good time playing Euchre with Queue, Bitty, and Treacle_Well, though, and TW and I agree that the seed-nut-brittle is pretty awesome. Nice afternoon chatting and playing cards (and finding out that I am not so horrible at Euchre, either). Later I got to play Bitty in Battle Line, too. And so the rest of the first days of the holiday ebbed, until I could make havdalah, do a quick check of email, get the apt in better order.
They're getting pizza for lunch for the department today. In the email sent out about this, there was a list of toppings, styles of pizza. I'd never heard of this one: "BLT: bacon, tomatoes, cheese topped with lettuce, tomato, mayo, no sauce." Is it just the kosher person's sensibilities, or does this sound horrible to other people too?
A quiet dinner, appreciating the weather's perfectness: I expect to have to have lots of layers to combat sitting in the chill, and here I was comfortable in one layer. Perfect (though I suspect I'll pay for this next year; this year is a leap year, adding a month, so next year the holidays will be "late" in the solar/secular calendar).
Shul in the morning. No lulav and etrog used on Shabbat, but there was the usual holiday addition of Hallel (a compliation of psalms, mostly), special Torah reading, and birkat cohanim (priestly blessing). And there was the Sukkot-specific hakafah (a special one for Shabbat, though).
Hakafah (pl. hakafot). I don't have any real idea of how to explain this, since I don't understand it myself. A description of the non-Shabbat ones: a Torah is taken out and held in the middle of the room, by the shulchan (lit. "table," where the Torah is read). All the guys (in a traditional ortho minyan) with lulav and etrog circle the Torah, while lining (Leader says, congregation repeats. Lather, rinse, repeat, as it were.) a given alphabetical poem-y thing that tends to have a couple of words/line, each one preceded and followed by the words "hoshana." There's a different one each day, depending on what day of the week the first day of Sukkot is. I don't know why we do this, really.
On the last day of Sukkot proper, there are 7 circuits done, and willow branches beaten on the floor. And on Simchat Torah there are another 7 circuits, but they are with the Torahs, not lulav and etrog (and lots lots lots of dancing, and singing, and Jewish-geekoid humor).
Kiddush in the sukkah at Hillel (a huge octagonal one), which had the doorways in different places this year, which was the tiniest bit disorienting. The best part was that I got a chance to talk with Jesse K, who is in the theater department at Brandeis. All sorts of inside information (makes a couple of seasons more understandable), which is always fun, plus knowing I'm likely to see a real play of his staged in the spring (I've seen skits and stuff of his, when he was an undergrad at Harvard). Very cool.
Shabbat lunch was the only meal I had a couple of guests for. I tried to get more people after shul, but there ended up being only 5 of us (M&M, her friend Shira, and Jason-the-director). An easy group, conversation just flowed, the food was good (artichokes as the appetizer course, buffet for the rest), all was nice... except it was too damn hot. I have to rig up some blinds or something next year: when the sun is out, it gets uncomfortable on my porch (close to burning my feet on the wood planks of the porch). We said grace, then went inside to the living room with the ceiling fan on; immediate relief. We had the sorbet buffet in there, with a minimum of chocolate stains. Unfortunately, I was unable to interest anyone in playing games, so off they went after lunch (and a discussion of ketubot (wedding contracts), fancy put-on-the-wall ones vs printed put-in-the-safe-deposit-box ones.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet. I read, sometimes inside, outside once the sun was no longer directly on the porch. I thought I should've gone for a walk or something, but just didn't want to move that much. Solitary dinner, reading (briefly visited by a ladybug) and eating challah and honey (feeling rather like a queen from a nursery rhyme).
Off to shul again, carrying lulav and etrog this time. Services with similar oddities to the day before, except that there was the lulave and etrog (on which more after this), and the song sung to introduce Ashrei (a psalm) after Torah reading, which is only sung on non-Shabbat holidays (in our minyan). I was disappointed that the guy leading chose a tune I didn't know at all and wasn't distinctive enough to pick up, either. *sigh* Have to wait until Passover...
Lulav and etrog. I was one of two women to have brought them. I know that some women use their menfolks' (husband/brother/father, etc), but there were fewer on the women's side than usual. I lent mine out to a couple of people to shake.
Then we got to the hakafah. The gabbai (sexton? someone who makes sure things run smoothly, basically) said how to move the chairs so there'd be room for the circuit, on both the men's and the women's sides. I wasn't planning on marching around (I've always been kinda pleased I *didn't* have to balance lulav, etrog, and prayerbook in only two hands.), but the other woman wanted to, and a woman was willing to hold a Torah in the middle (when I said I wouldn't march around nothing). Interestingly, I think this is the first time this has happened in the regular minyan. There have been women's hakafot, but in a separate room (and with a lot more women...). So, feeling rather foolish, since it was only 2 of us circling (there were at least 70 men, which made a complete circuit, rather than our little points describing a circuit over time), I did it.
Lunch in the sukkah (again driven in by sunshine, despite the addition of a tablecloth hung to block some of the sun), then preparing for the open sukkah. I'd gotten a variety of junk foods (salty and sweet), figuring there might be more people coming than had expressed interest (plus I'd invited people at shul). Well, I was wrong. I had a good time playing Euchre with Queue, Bitty, and Treacle_Well, though, and TW and I agree that the seed-nut-brittle is pretty awesome. Nice afternoon chatting and playing cards (and finding out that I am not so horrible at Euchre, either). Later I got to play Bitty in Battle Line, too. And so the rest of the first days of the holiday ebbed, until I could make havdalah, do a quick check of email, get the apt in better order.
They're getting pizza for lunch for the department today. In the email sent out about this, there was a list of toppings, styles of pizza. I'd never heard of this one: "BLT: bacon, tomatoes, cheese topped with lettuce, tomato, mayo, no sauce." Is it just the kosher person's sensibilities, or does this sound horrible to other people too?
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no subject
Date: 2002-09-23 08:52 am (UTC)Ah, well. I did get to do kiddish in the Tremont St. sukkah on Shabbas after services, though.
The pizza sounds terrible, but I (1) also have the kosher sensitivities, and (2) don't like much of anything on pizza other than cheese, unless I'm at Emma's.
That would put me off pizza for good
Date: 2002-09-23 09:01 am (UTC)Re: That would put me off pizza for good
Date: 2002-09-23 09:11 am (UTC)◊
no subject
Date: 2002-09-23 09:38 am (UTC)i'd eat it w/o the mayo. mayo shouldn't be cooked. pizza should. hence, the idea of combining them is nasty.
pizza
Date: 2002-09-23 10:34 am (UTC)