Up Down and All Around

Had a lovely Shabbos- got to eat lunch with shorr and his lovely fiancee, whom I almost never see and have been missing (along with the usual crew). I started Shabbos with a clean bathroom, and absolutely lovely weather, both of which also helped things.

An hour before mincha there was a Sharing Our Faiths program, a chance to go watch an Orthodox Christian service. As zodiacmg seemed to be missing in action (actually fast asleep in his room- he didn't even hear me knock), I went off to that rather than our usual learning. It was interesting to watch, but quite unintelligible. It makes me see why religious services are so hard to follow: they had a nice leaflet to give out, but it didn't actually explain the order of the service, what was going on, or how long anythign would take, nor was it quite in order. It was a mix of (paraphrased) "the priest will cense the icon of x while reciting y, and then will do a general censing of the church/house- the incense can be quite strong for those who aren't used to it. Each ode begins with the phrase [I don't remember at all]." No one seemed to have prayer books besides the priest (obvious from the fancy purple and gold cloack thing) and the Reader (I have no idea if that's something people take turns doing, or if it requires special training, or if it's an appointed position, or what), and that wasn't something they thought of to explain. You forget how radically outside the range of knowledge other people's religious lives are, and exactly how Much there is to explain. And then I had to leave to go daven before I got much of the explanation. But it was a beautiful reminder of how much there is out there that I know Nothing about.

THere was a shiur earlier in the day on Ana B'Koakh, a prayer of sorts that may be a meditation on a name of G-d- the 42 letter name, or something trying to reach that name. It isn't something I knew much about, and it was a very nice shiur. Stayed afterwards to talk about the nature of the minyan document/charter, and whether or not having a list of optional changes to the liturgy that the minyan allows, versys just trusting the sha"tz to respect the community. I like having a list- partially because reading it is an expansion of the options that I am aware of on a regular basis. But also because I like knowing that there are guidelines out there to fall back on, just in case.

Saturday night zodiacmg, pallasrosalind and I baked hamentaschen, but my oven was horridly evil and burnt almost all of them. So I got kind of down about that. But life goes on, and while I wish I had hamentaschen to give out, I'll just have to run another errand and revise my mishloach manot.

So much to do today: last touches on an Aramaic quiz, other homework, thesis work probably including an IM interview, megillah layning to work on, mishloach manot prep, costume prep...

Up Down and All Around

Had a lovely Shabbos- got to eat lunch with shorr and his lovely fiancee, whom I almost never see and have been missing (along with the usual crew). I started Shabbos with a clean bathroom, and absolutely lovely weather, both of which also helped things.

An hour before mincha there was a Sharing Our Faiths program, a chance to go watch an Orthodox Christian service. As zodiacmg seemed to be missing in action (actually fast asleep in his room- he didn't even hear me knock), I went off to that rather than our usual learning. It was interesting to watch, but quite unintelligible. It makes me see why religious services are so hard to follow: they had a nice leaflet to give out, but it didn't actually explain the order of the service, what was going on, or how long anythign would take, nor was it quite in order. It was a mix of (paraphrased) "the priest will cense the icon of x while reciting y, and then will do a general censing of the church/house- the incense can be quite strong for those who aren't used to it. Each ode begins with the phrase [I don't remember at all]." No one seemed to have prayer books besides the priest (obvious from the fancy purple and gold cloack thing) and the Reader (I have no idea if that's something people take turns doing, or if it requires special training, or if it's an appointed position, or what), and that wasn't something they thought of to explain. You forget how radically outside the range of knowledge other people's religious lives are, and exactly how Much there is to explain. And then I had to leave to go daven before I got much of the explanation. But it was a beautiful reminder of how much there is out there that I know Nothing about.

THere was a shiur earlier in the day on Ana B'Koakh, a prayer of sorts that may be a meditation on a name of G-d- the 42 letter name, or something trying to reach that name. It isn't something I knew much about, and it was a very nice shiur. Stayed afterwards to talk about the nature of the minyan document/charter, and whether or not having a list of optional changes to the liturgy that the minyan allows, versys just trusting the sha"tz to respect the community. I like having a list- partially because reading it is an expansion of the options that I am aware of on a regular basis. But also because I like knowing that there are guidelines out there to fall back on, just in case.

Saturday night zodiacmg, pallasrosalind and I baked hamentaschen, but my oven was horridly evil and burnt almost all of them. So I got kind of down about that. But life goes on, and while I wish I had hamentaschen to give out, I'll just have to run another errand and revise my mishloach manot.

So much to do today: last touches on an Aramaic quiz, other homework, thesis work probably including an IM interview, megillah layning to work on, mishloach manot prep, costume prep...