Jewish musings, Monday, July 29

[gazelle18]

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:
Frieda (hopefully)
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy


And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be sh

[gazelle18]

Hi everyone,

Recently , I had a new experience. At my age, the number of times I can say I have had a totally new experience has diminished. But there is no reason it SHOULD. I think experiencing new things is a way to remain interested in life, and to grow as a person.

My new experience involved the local Mikvah. I recently got trained to be a mikvah attendant, and the other evening, I got to be the attendant for a Mikvah immersee for the first time. It was a wonderful, very spiritual experience for me.

Can you tell about a completely new experience you have had lately?

[hollygail]

Yesterday was the first day of NewCAJE. I experienced two wonderful workshops, both new to me.

The first had to do with nusach (the melodies used for prayers during services. If you're familiar with the melody for the opening of the amidah sometimes called The Prayer / haTefillah) used on Saturday mornings, it is a completely different melody from what's used weekday mornings and what's used for afternoon services, mincha. The class also covered the various kinds of trop, the melodies used for chanting Torah, haftarah, Lamentations (read for Tisha b'Av,) Esther (Purim,) and the (remaining) megillot: the Song of Songs (Shir haShirim) read on Passover, the Book of Ruth (read on Shavuot, and Ecclesiastes Sukkot). I was familiar with all of these differences.

Side note: I myself can chant what I refer to as Shabbat trop and haftarah). I purposely avoided learning the other four kinds because in my congregation, I was the only person other than my rabbi and cantor (when we had one) who knew how to chant Torah and haftarah and frankly I didn't want to get stuck having to read Torah for High Holy Days too. Lately I've been thinking about learning the one referred to as the "general" megillah trop just because it's so beautiful!

The second workshop I attended was taught by a woman about my age (although she looks older than I do) who started teaching at her synagogue when she was still a teenager(!). She showed us some of the gimmicks (my terminology) she's come up with on how to teach kids not only how to read Hebrew, but how to read the prayers and some Torah thrown in! She also talked about how she uses each kind of (what I called) gimmick (for lack of a more descriptive term). Wow! I loved all these extra tricks I picked up from her! (I also use my own brand of gimmicks; now I know more of 'em!)

I attended the full NewCAJE half-week once before. That one was at UCLA which is located in the western part of Los Angeles. My niece lives in Santa Monica, farther west, and I stayed at her house for those three or four days. For that one, the Federation in San Diego purchased t-shirts designed specifically for the San Diego teachers who were going to attend NewCAJE that year; I wore mine yesterday (and got a comment from the teacher in the first workshop I attended yesterday!). I'm considering wearing it today, tomorrow and Wednesday too, although I'm not sure how great that idea is... The t-shirt they're selling for all attendees this year costs $10 and the San Diego Federation, while it kicked in $360 for each of us (and many, most? all? of our congregations kicked in another $360, asking us to pay the remaining $80 for registration and my congregation reimbursed us that $80) didn't kick in any amount to help with t-shirts this time, which is why I'm wearing my older NewCAJE t-shirt...

[peachymom1]

I can't think of a new experience, but will think about it until I come up with something! I hope I actually HAVE had a new experience recently!

Lynne, I just want to say that it's wonderful that you've learned how to be a mikvah lady. It makes all the difference to have someone there who is kind and respectful, not just focused on the details of the ritual. I'm sure you did a beautiful job, and I hope you get a chance to serve in that role again.

Holly, it sounds like you had a great experience, what a wonderful weekend! I'm familiar with all those tropes too. I've chanted the Lamentations trope, the Ruth trope, and the Esther trope. The adult b'nei mitzvah class at my shul chants from The Song of Songs for its haftarah, since it's always the Shabbat during Passover, and I just love that trope. Unfortunately for me, I missed out on that chance, because my adult class learned the standard haftarah from Ezekiel that year. Maybe that's something new I could learn.

[lee058]

Good afternoon everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Re today's topic: I can't think of a brand-new experience, but I've had several not-so-new ones happening at the same time, does that count?

Have a peaceful day, Lee