Interesting Shabbos Event(s)

Note to the world-I'm writing this with one foot in a bowl of hot water, trying to work out a splinter-piece that I didn't quite get out before Shabbos. It's in my heel, and only hurts when I misstep rather oddly. But still- you'd think someone as usually prepared for basic health-care as I tend to be would have tweezers- but I don't.

In any case, Mincha (afternoon service) today was an interesting adventure in minyan-land. We arrived at the chapel to find a bar mitzvah still going on- something which happens once or twice a year, although usually in the middle of the winter. They were going through birkat hakohanim (the Priestly blessing/benediction depending on how fancy you want to get), so I figured that it was the closing blessing/prayer/benediction (depending on the mores of your congregation/rabbi) or some such. Then Steve looked through the booklet they'd made- they had extras in the hall, and realized there were still several readings/songs, aleinu, mourner's kaddish, and some more songs left. We didn't have that sort of time. So we talked with R. Lehmann who was conveniently around, and took a Torah and davenned outside by the pond. We lacked a functional table for the torah-reading (there's a sort of triangular lectern, but that wouldn't precisely work for the operational reasons involved with scroll-usage), and so Steve and Steve (one a current gabbay, another a former gabbay) were really incredible and held it up vertically- they each took a side, and zodiacmg did a fabulous job of adapting to reading from a vertical torah. It was an exciting moment- rather one of those "bonding through adversity" community building things that you can't plan but which probably will have very nice benefits for the community. And it was a lovely display of ingenuity, creativity and a willingness to a. be nice rather than getting angry, and to make things work. Thank goodness it didn't rain- that would have made life rather more complex.

Interesting Shabbos Event(s)

Note to the world-I'm writing this with one foot in a bowl of hot water, trying to work out a splinter-piece that I didn't quite get out before Shabbos. It's in my heel, and only hurts when I misstep rather oddly. But still- you'd think someone as usually prepared for basic health-care as I tend to be would have tweezers- but I don't.

In any case, Mincha (afternoon service) today was an interesting adventure in minyan-land. We arrived at the chapel to find a bar mitzvah still going on- something which happens once or twice a year, although usually in the middle of the winter. They were going through birkat hakohanim (the Priestly blessing/benediction depending on how fancy you want to get), so I figured that it was the closing blessing/prayer/benediction (depending on the mores of your congregation/rabbi) or some such. Then Steve looked through the booklet they'd made- they had extras in the hall, and realized there were still several readings/songs, aleinu, mourner's kaddish, and some more songs left. We didn't have that sort of time. So we talked with R. Lehmann who was conveniently around, and took a Torah and davenned outside by the pond. We lacked a functional table for the torah-reading (there's a sort of triangular lectern, but that wouldn't precisely work for the operational reasons involved with scroll-usage), and so Steve and Steve (one a current gabbay, another a former gabbay) were really incredible and held it up vertically- they each took a side, and zodiacmg did a fabulous job of adapting to reading from a vertical torah. It was an exciting moment- rather one of those "bonding through adversity" community building things that you can't plan but which probably will have very nice benefits for the community. And it was a lovely display of ingenuity, creativity and a willingness to a. be nice rather than getting angry, and to make things work. Thank goodness it didn't rain- that would have made life rather more complex.