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I just had one of those essential summer moments- I made a very wet, vinegary salad with yesterday's cherry tomatoes and some red onion, and was eating it listening to a dance CD from I think 3 years ago, and it just felt very much seasonally appropriate. Food I couldn't have (or at least, taht wouldn't taste the same at all) the rest of the year, and music I might not take the time to take out, at least as a CD, most of the time. For all the humid rain, it just feels very clean and separated in time. And yet, like the stereotypical summer memory, it feels bittersweet.
I just had one of those essential summer moments- I made a very wet, vinegary salad with yesterday's cherry tomatoes and some red onion, and was eating it listening to a dance CD from I think 3 years ago, and it just felt very much seasonally appropriate. Food I couldn't have (or at least, taht wouldn't taste the same at all) the rest of the year, and music I might not take the time to take out, at least as a CD, most of the time. For all the humid rain, it just feels very clean and separated in time. And yet, like the stereotypical summer memory, it feels bittersweet.
Warning: This post is likely to contain some odd mixtures of kvelling and sibling rivalry.
I just did something that is probably pretty odd, but (fear not) quite harmless- I watched a bunch of snippets from my sister's Bat Mitzvah video. I'm sure you're wondering why it wasn't my own Bat Mitzvah experience that I watched- well, Em's is staring at me every one of those rare occasions that I open the TV, and at mine the videographer had gotten into a car accident on teh way there, and never showed up- so my uncle recorded parts of it, but his camera battery was dying, so we just have some bits. And anyways- it's more fun watching other people. But it was pretty strange, as an experience.
First odd, my sister is far from religious, actually, she's an atheist. So watching her lead a service, and actually wear the tallit that has, since then, mostly sat in a box in Mom's closet is a powerful and unusual experience for me. It's sort of a "might-have-been" (to borrow Madeleine L'Engle's term) if things had worked out differently. There are definitely times I wish I could share this part of my life with her, or with some member of my family, so in that sense it was pretty bittersweet.
Another weird aspect was watching a service at my parents' shul from before I'd had any idea that I wanted a more traditional observance- at my sister's 13th birthday, I was 14 (and wanted to be a rabbi when I grew up). And remembering that- it was a lot more moving than I would find the same service now. Watching my family participate, especially during the torah reading, with their xeroxed transliteration sheets in hand, and the weeks-to-months of practice that they put in beforehand, was touching.
The beloved sibling also had an unusually nice voice for a 13 year old, or even in general. I'd forgotten how nice her voice is- I haven't heard her sing in quite a while. Unlike Mom and I, she doesn't sing randomly much at all. My voice is nice, functional, and whatnot- hers deserves training. Either that or the video played tricks with it. It was also strange and nostalgic to hear the variations on the tunes that we'd picked up from teh previous cantor, who'd been there for years, and with whom my sister and mother were pretty darn close. I'd gotten so used to the variants I've heard in college, and before that from the cantor who was at the shul from the year after Em's bat mitzvah until this summer that I'd forgotten where things had varied.
Outside of my sister and the clergy there were about four people in tallitot- myself, my mom, mom's friend Michelle who was representing the board, and SHelly, a regular community member who actually goes to shul regularly, even Saturday morning (a real rarity at that shul). Shelly's a man- other than that, all women- which rather proves my point about tallitot being beged isha in my background. (And in my family- Mom has one, Dad doesn't.)
Speaking of clergy- the cantor we had that year was a Russian woman- herself orthodox, but who really wanted to lead services, and this was her way of doing so. And she had a tallit on (although I'm not sure if it had halakhically OK tzitzit- it was hard to tell, it had lots of regular fringies, certainly) and a kippah. That's not something I could see most, if any, of the orthodox women I know personally doing. An interesting statement- sort of correlates with something![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
arib told me about his (orthodox) shul, where significantly more women in tallitot showed up in the '80s than do now.
Watching the video of the party, I noticed a song that I Know I didn't know then (I only learned it at school), being played by the band. It was sort of temporal shock, especially seeing it (BaShanah Haba'ah) played by my former trombone teacher, to whom I remember explaining that shmaltz was literally chicken fat.
I just did something that is probably pretty odd, but (fear not) quite harmless- I watched a bunch of snippets from my sister's Bat Mitzvah video. I'm sure you're wondering why it wasn't my own Bat Mitzvah experience that I watched- well, Em's is staring at me every one of those rare occasions that I open the TV, and at mine the videographer had gotten into a car accident on teh way there, and never showed up- so my uncle recorded parts of it, but his camera battery was dying, so we just have some bits. And anyways- it's more fun watching other people. But it was pretty strange, as an experience.
First odd, my sister is far from religious, actually, she's an atheist. So watching her lead a service, and actually wear the tallit that has, since then, mostly sat in a box in Mom's closet is a powerful and unusual experience for me. It's sort of a "might-have-been" (to borrow Madeleine L'Engle's term) if things had worked out differently. There are definitely times I wish I could share this part of my life with her, or with some member of my family, so in that sense it was pretty bittersweet.
Another weird aspect was watching a service at my parents' shul from before I'd had any idea that I wanted a more traditional observance- at my sister's 13th birthday, I was 14 (and wanted to be a rabbi when I grew up). And remembering that- it was a lot more moving than I would find the same service now. Watching my family participate, especially during the torah reading, with their xeroxed transliteration sheets in hand, and the weeks-to-months of practice that they put in beforehand, was touching.
The beloved sibling also had an unusually nice voice for a 13 year old, or even in general. I'd forgotten how nice her voice is- I haven't heard her sing in quite a while. Unlike Mom and I, she doesn't sing randomly much at all. My voice is nice, functional, and whatnot- hers deserves training. Either that or the video played tricks with it. It was also strange and nostalgic to hear the variations on the tunes that we'd picked up from teh previous cantor, who'd been there for years, and with whom my sister and mother were pretty darn close. I'd gotten so used to the variants I've heard in college, and before that from the cantor who was at the shul from the year after Em's bat mitzvah until this summer that I'd forgotten where things had varied.
Outside of my sister and the clergy there were about four people in tallitot- myself, my mom, mom's friend Michelle who was representing the board, and SHelly, a regular community member who actually goes to shul regularly, even Saturday morning (a real rarity at that shul). Shelly's a man- other than that, all women- which rather proves my point about tallitot being beged isha in my background. (And in my family- Mom has one, Dad doesn't.)
Speaking of clergy- the cantor we had that year was a Russian woman- herself orthodox, but who really wanted to lead services, and this was her way of doing so. And she had a tallit on (although I'm not sure if it had halakhically OK tzitzit- it was hard to tell, it had lots of regular fringies, certainly) and a kippah. That's not something I could see most, if any, of the orthodox women I know personally doing. An interesting statement- sort of correlates with something
arib told me about his (orthodox) shul, where significantly more women in tallitot showed up in the '80s than do now. Watching the video of the party, I noticed a song that I Know I didn't know then (I only learned it at school), being played by the band. It was sort of temporal shock, especially seeing it (BaShanah Haba'ah) played by my former trombone teacher, to whom I remember explaining that shmaltz was literally chicken fat.
Warning: This post is likely to contain some odd mixtures of kvelling and sibling rivalry.
I just did something that is probably pretty odd, but (fear not) quite harmless- I watched a bunch of snippets from my sister's Bat Mitzvah video. I'm sure you're wondering why it wasn't my own Bat Mitzvah experience that I watched- well, Em's is staring at me every one of those rare occasions that I open the TV, and at mine the videographer had gotten into a car accident on teh way there, and never showed up- so my uncle recorded parts of it, but his camera battery was dying, so we just have some bits. And anyways- it's more fun watching other people. But it was pretty strange, as an experience.
First odd, my sister is far from religious, actually, she's an atheist. So watching her lead a service, and actually wear the tallit that has, since then, mostly sat in a box in Mom's closet is a powerful and unusual experience for me. It's sort of a "might-have-been" (to borrow Madeleine L'Engle's term) if things had worked out differently. There are definitely times I wish I could share this part of my life with her, or with some member of my family, so in that sense it was pretty bittersweet.
Another weird aspect was watching a service at my parents' shul from before I'd had any idea that I wanted a more traditional observance- at my sister's 13th birthday, I was 14 (and wanted to be a rabbi when I grew up). And remembering that- it was a lot more moving than I would find the same service now. Watching my family participate, especially during the torah reading, with their xeroxed transliteration sheets in hand, and the weeks-to-months of practice that they put in beforehand, was touching.
The beloved sibling also had an unusually nice voice for a 13 year old, or even in general. I'd forgotten how nice her voice is- I haven't heard her sing in quite a while. Unlike Mom and I, she doesn't sing randomly much at all. My voice is nice, functional, and whatnot- hers deserves training. Either that or the video played tricks with it. It was also strange and nostalgic to hear the variations on the tunes that we'd picked up from teh previous cantor, who'd been there for years, and with whom my sister and mother were pretty darn close. I'd gotten so used to the variants I've heard in college, and before that from the cantor who was at the shul from the year after Em's bat mitzvah until this summer that I'd forgotten where things had varied.
Outside of my sister and the clergy there were about four people in tallitot- myself, my mom, mom's friend Michelle who was representing the board, and SHelly, a regular community member who actually goes to shul regularly, even Saturday morning (a real rarity at that shul). Shelly's a man- other than that, all women- which rather proves my point about tallitot being beged isha in my background. (And in my family- Mom has one, Dad doesn't.)
Speaking of clergy- the cantor we had that year was a Russian woman- herself orthodox, but who really wanted to lead services, and this was her way of doing so. And she had a tallit on (although I'm not sure if it had halakhically OK tzitzit- it was hard to tell, it had lots of regular fringies, certainly) and a kippah. That's not something I could see most, if any, of the orthodox women I know personally doing. An interesting statement- sort of correlates with somethingarib told me about his (orthodox) shul, where significantly more women in tallitot showed up in the '80s than do now.
Watching the video of the party, I noticed a song that I Know I didn't know then (I only learned it at school), being played by the band. It was sort of temporal shock, especially seeing it (BaShanah Haba'ah) played by my former trombone teacher, to whom I remember explaining that shmaltz was literally chicken fat.
I just did something that is probably pretty odd, but (fear not) quite harmless- I watched a bunch of snippets from my sister's Bat Mitzvah video. I'm sure you're wondering why it wasn't my own Bat Mitzvah experience that I watched- well, Em's is staring at me every one of those rare occasions that I open the TV, and at mine the videographer had gotten into a car accident on teh way there, and never showed up- so my uncle recorded parts of it, but his camera battery was dying, so we just have some bits. And anyways- it's more fun watching other people. But it was pretty strange, as an experience.
First odd, my sister is far from religious, actually, she's an atheist. So watching her lead a service, and actually wear the tallit that has, since then, mostly sat in a box in Mom's closet is a powerful and unusual experience for me. It's sort of a "might-have-been" (to borrow Madeleine L'Engle's term) if things had worked out differently. There are definitely times I wish I could share this part of my life with her, or with some member of my family, so in that sense it was pretty bittersweet.
Another weird aspect was watching a service at my parents' shul from before I'd had any idea that I wanted a more traditional observance- at my sister's 13th birthday, I was 14 (and wanted to be a rabbi when I grew up). And remembering that- it was a lot more moving than I would find the same service now. Watching my family participate, especially during the torah reading, with their xeroxed transliteration sheets in hand, and the weeks-to-months of practice that they put in beforehand, was touching.
The beloved sibling also had an unusually nice voice for a 13 year old, or even in general. I'd forgotten how nice her voice is- I haven't heard her sing in quite a while. Unlike Mom and I, she doesn't sing randomly much at all. My voice is nice, functional, and whatnot- hers deserves training. Either that or the video played tricks with it. It was also strange and nostalgic to hear the variations on the tunes that we'd picked up from teh previous cantor, who'd been there for years, and with whom my sister and mother were pretty darn close. I'd gotten so used to the variants I've heard in college, and before that from the cantor who was at the shul from the year after Em's bat mitzvah until this summer that I'd forgotten where things had varied.
Outside of my sister and the clergy there were about four people in tallitot- myself, my mom, mom's friend Michelle who was representing the board, and SHelly, a regular community member who actually goes to shul regularly, even Saturday morning (a real rarity at that shul). Shelly's a man- other than that, all women- which rather proves my point about tallitot being beged isha in my background. (And in my family- Mom has one, Dad doesn't.)
Speaking of clergy- the cantor we had that year was a Russian woman- herself orthodox, but who really wanted to lead services, and this was her way of doing so. And she had a tallit on (although I'm not sure if it had halakhically OK tzitzit- it was hard to tell, it had lots of regular fringies, certainly) and a kippah. That's not something I could see most, if any, of the orthodox women I know personally doing. An interesting statement- sort of correlates with something
arib told me about his (orthodox) shul, where significantly more women in tallitot showed up in the '80s than do now. Watching the video of the party, I noticed a song that I Know I didn't know then (I only learned it at school), being played by the band. It was sort of temporal shock, especially seeing it (BaShanah Haba'ah) played by my former trombone teacher, to whom I remember explaining that shmaltz was literally chicken fat.
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