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Post by peachymom1 on Oct 23, 2016 22:27:51 GMT -5
What’s on your mind – how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.
Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:
Angelika
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy
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Post by peachymom1 on Oct 23, 2016 22:28:40 GMT -5
Boker tov and chag sameach! Today I will be reading from the Torah, and the service will go long, since we will have the Yizkor memorial service as well. I plan to have a nice nap after lunch.
If I remember correctly, in Israel Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are celebrated together, but here, Simchat Torah begins tonight. We rejoice in the Torah, dance with the scrolls, make a lot of noise and have a lot of fun. Do you celebrate Simchat Torah? If so, what do you enjoy most about it? Did or does your family celebrate with you? How have you celebrated it in other congregations, other cities, other countries, including Israel?
What I like best about Simchat Torah is the idea that we’re never finished with our learning. As soon as we finish reading the end of Deuteronomy, we roll the Torah all the way back to the beginning and start reading it again. We’re big on new beginnings, we Jews, and new opportunities to start over. It seems fitting that after all the renewal of the High Holidays, the Torah goes back to the beginning as well.
Tell us your stories! How are you celebrating tonight and/or tomorrow? Even if you’re not celebrating the holiday, do you have any comments or observations about the ending of our fall holiday season?
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Post by hollygail on Oct 23, 2016 23:57:05 GMT -5
The Reform movement smooshes together Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, so Monday (tomorrow for me as it's 9:45pm Sunday here; today for many of you) is both for Reform congregations.
I teach at one Conservative shul where the 7th graders go to Sunday School on Saturday morning (I attend a different Conservative shul during the week), one very small Reform Temple with a part-time rabbi and no other paid staff (oh; there's an administrator who's even more part-time than the rabbi; and they pay three of us teachers for Sunday afternoon classes), and one Reconstructionist congregation. Because the Reform Temple is so small, they mark most Jewish holidays on the closest Shabbat. So they celebrated Simchat Torah on Saturday; I read the first day of creation in Genesis (the some time song leader read the end of Deuteronomy; his name is Hilly and we seem to have made a "Hilly and Holly show" and took it on the road, which I'll tell you about in a moment). So that's the first Simchat Torah celebration for me this year.
Then, the Reconstructionist congregation has been getting a smaller and smaller turnout for erev Simchat Torah in recent years, so decided to try something different this year. The entire congregation was invited to come during Sunday School to celebrate Simchat Torah. (You guessed it; the song leader I ran into Saturday was also on tap Sunday; the Hilly and Holly show did indeed go on the road, as it were.) Hilly chanted the end of Deuteronomy and I chanted the first day of Creation from Genesis.
Monday morning I'll go to my local Conservative shul for Shemini Atzeret and Tuesday for Simchat Torah. I imagine the man who's on tap to chant the first three aliyot for next Saturday will read the beginning of Genesis (no pun intended), but in case he wants to share, I can volunteer (for the third time in four days) to chant the first day of creation from Genesis (Hilly has no connection with my local Conservative shul)...
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Post by peachymom1 on Oct 24, 2016 9:33:47 GMT -5
I'm sitting here giggling over "The Hilly and Holly Show!"
It rained last night - unusual for SoCal in October - and it's cool and rainy today too. I love it. I'm leaving for shul in about an hour, so I'm practicing my Torah reading and the morning prayers, since I'm leading them this morning as well. Tomorrow I get to go and just be a davener. That will be rather nice.
I still have my eye on that nap later today...
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Post by savtele on Oct 24, 2016 11:28:22 GMT -5
Boker Tov All! The prayers for rain are working.....
I'm loving the "Hilly & Holly" show!
Some of my favorite memories of Simchat Torah involve the re-rolling of the scrolls. Scrolls unfurled around the walls of the Schul, with everyone holding them. Scrolls rolled across long tables. Small children getting their 1st chance to see them up-close & personal.
Pool's closed this week - they painted a new product on the pool deck a few months ago - it is very slippery when wet! So this week some sort of remedial coating is being applied. Soo - I'm off to the gym!
Have a good day ladies! (I have my eye on a nap later today also!)
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lee058
This space for rent
Posts: 23,269 
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Post by lee058 on Oct 24, 2016 11:33:18 GMT -5
Hi everybody. I hope everyone is feeling well today. I feel a little sleepy (I've been up since 4AM since DS is back on an early shift) but good. He's doing more training so he only worked until 9AM, but will be starting early every day this week. After I picked him up from work, we made a quick stop at the supermarket and then went to IHOP for a second breakfast. I really like their pumpkin pancakes, and they had fresh coffee, which was much better than I expected. The service was also better than that at the IHOP we usually go to. Since this other restaurant is very close to where DS works, I think we will probably go there again in the future.
As for autumn celebrations, I feel like they are just starting! The leaves are just barely changing colors, and that is what means "autumn" to me more than anything else. True, they are falling off the trees, but there are still zillions more hanging in there, waiting to turn red and orange and gold. I love autumn colors.
And we can't forget Halloween. I love Halloween. I hope I can find bags of pretzels so I won't have a ton of candy in the house. H and DS insist on candy "for the neighborhood kids" --- HA.
I'll be back later. Have a peaceful day, Lee
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Post by gazelle18 on Oct 24, 2016 12:45:39 GMT -5
So a big thing in New Orleans is to "second line" (that is, dance behind) to a marching brass band blaring festive music. Last night our Shul closed a side street, took all the Torahs out, and everyone fell in line behind a marching band, playing "hava nagila", and many many other favorites. The children loved it!
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Post by louise on Oct 24, 2016 15:06:05 GMT -5
I went to shul this morning for Shemini Atzeret, which for us includes Yizkor. Before I left i changed all of the torah covers (there are 5 in the ark and yes I solicited help). All the torahs were still in white and I like to change them back before people start dancing in the street with them! What do other synagogues do about that, I wonder?
So I came in to work but will be leaving early for erev Simchat Torah. Not have a marching band to walk behind it's our rabbi that whips up the energy. We do the first couple of hakafot (rounds)inside until he thinks we are showing enough spirit to take it to the street (which gets closed off for this). We have a few small scrolls - one is not a torah per se (contains Book of Ruth and some other writings) but it's a size a kid can hold. We also have some stuffed torahs so everyone can have something. My rabbi asks torah questions in between hakafot (rounds) and tosses candy out to the kids for right answers. Angelika, we also unroll a torah around the room (one that is pasul, meaning not kosher) and the rabbi gives a tour, pointing to various stories.
I remember as a girl marching with a flag and an apple skewered on top. Truth be told, I also remember there being a candle stuck into the apple but that sounds dangerous!
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Post by hollygail on Oct 24, 2016 17:43:47 GMT -5
In my congregation, we don't change the mantles on the scrolls until after the scrolls are read from on Simchat Torah. And this morning at the local Conservative shul, the mantles were still white. When I get there tomorrow, I'll check before the Torah reading to see whether they're still the white ones or whether they've been changed. (I'm not going tonight.)
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Post by peachymom1 on Oct 24, 2016 17:44:47 GMT -5
Simchat Torah at my shul is a big deal, with all kinds of stuff for the kids and the adults. I still prefer to go to the evening minyan with the hard-core folks, and it makes an earlier evening too.
My Torah reading went well today, and I remembered to insert the correct Psalm for Monday instead of the one for Shabbat that I'm used to doing, since I rarely lead the morning prayers on any other day besides Shabbat. And I had the pleasure of seeing an old friend that I haven't seen in a while; he's literally an old friend, since I think he turned 96 this year. He's a wonderful human being, and I hope he lives to 120 and six months!
Lee, my trick for dealing with Halloween candy is to only buy kinds that I don't care for myself. Then I'm not tempted to dig into the bag!
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Post by happysavta on Oct 24, 2016 23:12:52 GMT -5
I never went to synagogue in Israel except once for a cousin's bar mitzvah. In my day, they were 100% orthodox only. Not much fun. In the U.S., it's the other way around. Synagogue is mostly for fun.
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