Because Apparently I Can't Stop Babbling: A Yom Kippur RItual Musing

Some just remembered Yom Kippur thoughts...
I noticed this year a definite change in behavioral/ritual participation demographics among my friends/minyan-mates. Maybe it was simply a lack of observation on my part due to not knowing to look previous years (but I doubt it), but I don't remember many people, if anyone besides the rabbi and shaliakh tzibbur (the messenger of the community: aka, the person leading the service) actually going for the "full" prostration either during the Rosh HaShannah Amidah recitation of Aleinu (ok, translation works out to: the original and special context for a prayer which is now said at the end of every service, but which has a text in it about bowing and prostrating oneself that is done actually kneeling and bending over on Rosh HaShannah, and with a knee bow and then a waist bow, and then, if you're me or from my home shul, a knee and waist bow), or during the Avodah service (aka, story time about what the High Priest did on Yom Kippur in the Temple when it existed- lots of blood sprinkling and dead goats) on Yom Kippur. This year there were a bunch of people, and having thought about it a bit beforehand, and also taking advantage of peer pressure, I did myself as well. But it was remarkable how from one year where everyone just bowed now there were a good number of folks (I'd say 6ish) spreading out in the aisles to make little human lumps on the ground. It's funny how the community changes over such a short time: there seems to be more of this sort of experiential, very visible participation, if less academic-style involvement with ideas. And of course, interestingly, it can be billed as a 'return' to traditional practice rather than an innovation, so there's no questioning of it. As far as I can tell, it's just a matter of different practices/customs in different places, so I'm not sure that one is more valid than another either way. But I find it particularly interesting when such practices which are surefire involve-the-congregation things are/appear to be old fashioned customs rather than innovations. Sometimes I wonder what's really what in that way: the whole modern vs. ancient debate seems to end up with a lot of practices that seem to be uber-modern and very old all at once.

That said, I found the prostration thing worthwhile once I started to get used to it. At first, like any first time thing it mostly felt awkward and anxious. And I wasn't entirely sure at first how it worked in the Avodah service- and neither did several of my compatriots, whom I presumed would know what they were doing. But the last time it happened, it was pretty significant feeling: something about hearing the line said while prostrated both from the congregation outside and also just my own voice in the little space between my body and the floor: if one wanted to make a vocal imitation of the "great shofar and the still small voice" from U'n'taneh Tokef (one of the important and powerful prayers of the high holiday liturgy, about one's fate being judged and sealed for the year), this was a pretty darn good way to go. It was definitely one of the more spiritually effective moments of the service. I could see it being a problem if one was in an otherwise less participatory congregation, or if one was wearing a shorter skirt than I tend to. Or of course if one was feeling dizzy- not a good activity for someone with orthostatic blood pressure.

If one wanted to play with mildly creative ritual, I could see working the Avodah service, which has 3 prostrations (darn, that word sounds formal) with a regular bow, a very low bow and then a full prostration to match the increasing range of people for which each sacrifice and prostration of the High Priest was supposed to correspond to. (That's a sacrifice the HP made- they didn't kill off 3 HPs each Yom Kippur: talk about waste...) That wouldn't work if one wanted to see ones' self in the role of the HP himself though, or really, if one wanted to be very accurate, if one was a kohen. I doubt we're supposed to be that precise though, considering as we're rather short on HPs to go around these days...

Because Apparently I Can't Stop Babbling: A Yom Kippur RItual Musing

Some just remembered Yom Kippur thoughts...
I noticed this year a definite change in behavioral/ritual participation demographics among my friends/minyan-mates. Maybe it was simply a lack of observation on my part due to not knowing to look previous years (but I doubt it), but I don't remember many people, if anyone besides the rabbi and shaliakh tzibbur (the messenger of the community: aka, the person leading the service) actually going for the "full" prostration either during the Rosh HaShannah Amidah recitation of Aleinu (ok, translation works out to: the original and special context for a prayer which is now said at the end of every service, but which has a text in it about bowing and prostrating oneself that is done actually kneeling and bending over on Rosh HaShannah, and with a knee bow and then a waist bow, and then, if you're me or from my home shul, a knee and waist bow), or during the Avodah service (aka, story time about what the High Priest did on Yom Kippur in the Temple when it existed- lots of blood sprinkling and dead goats) on Yom Kippur. This year there were a bunch of people, and having thought about it a bit beforehand, and also taking advantage of peer pressure, I did myself as well. But it was remarkable how from one year where everyone just bowed now there were a good number of folks (I'd say 6ish) spreading out in the aisles to make little human lumps on the ground. It's funny how the community changes over such a short time: there seems to be more of this sort of experiential, very visible participation, if less academic-style involvement with ideas. And of course, interestingly, it can be billed as a 'return' to traditional practice rather than an innovation, so there's no questioning of it. As far as I can tell, it's just a matter of different practices/customs in different places, so I'm not sure that one is more valid than another either way. But I find it particularly interesting when such practices which are surefire involve-the-congregation things are/appear to be old fashioned customs rather than innovations. Sometimes I wonder what's really what in that way: the whole modern vs. ancient debate seems to end up with a lot of practices that seem to be uber-modern and very old all at once.

That said, I found the prostration thing worthwhile once I started to get used to it. At first, like any first time thing it mostly felt awkward and anxious. And I wasn't entirely sure at first how it worked in the Avodah service- and neither did several of my compatriots, whom I presumed would know what they were doing. But the last time it happened, it was pretty significant feeling: something about hearing the line said while prostrated both from the congregation outside and also just my own voice in the little space between my body and the floor: if one wanted to make a vocal imitation of the "great shofar and the still small voice" from U'n'taneh Tokef (one of the important and powerful prayers of the high holiday liturgy, about one's fate being judged and sealed for the year), this was a pretty darn good way to go. It was definitely one of the more spiritually effective moments of the service. I could see it being a problem if one was in an otherwise less participatory congregation, or if one was wearing a shorter skirt than I tend to. Or of course if one was feeling dizzy- not a good activity for someone with orthostatic blood pressure.

If one wanted to play with mildly creative ritual, I could see working the Avodah service, which has 3 prostrations (darn, that word sounds formal) with a regular bow, a very low bow and then a full prostration to match the increasing range of people for which each sacrifice and prostration of the High Priest was supposed to correspond to. (That's a sacrifice the HP made- they didn't kill off 3 HPs each Yom Kippur: talk about waste...) That wouldn't work if one wanted to see ones' self in the role of the HP himself though, or really, if one wanted to be very accurate, if one was a kohen. I doubt we're supposed to be that precise though, considering as we're rather short on HPs to go around these days...