Some Ritual Thoughts, Some Silly Thoughts

Ritual Thoughts
Yesterday I attended the bris of the baby of the couple near who I generally sit in shul. (Said baby is completely adorable, naturally, and his parents look marvelously happy.) I was really interested by the ceremony itself: it's only the second bris I've attended, and it was totally different in organization and atmosphere from that of sharonaf's son's bris. This one was also head in shul, meaning at JTS, but after mincha on a Sunday, and there was rather a larger crowd with many more friends of the parents, while most of the family was immediate family- the baby's grandparents, aunts and I think a great-aunt or two.

The ritual structure was also much clearer- although it was hard for me to tell at the previous bris due to sanctuary layout (the bris was at the very front of the shul, and there was a Large space between that and the ladies' section: I couldn't hear very much besides the actual bracha and the baby crying). I'm not sure who was saying what when there, whereas at this bris it was very readily apparent, including a rather surprising amount of announcing who'd be doing what- a lot of "and now the baby's maternal grandparents will offer some words" "and now Steve will sing a niggun" "and now Steve's sisters will offer some words". There was a lot of acknowledging various relatives and a few friends at the seminary- the father's chevruta, a particular pair of friends... In the same vein, there was this air of the bris being a teaching opportunity- there were some explanations included for the less informed- about why the baby's father was wearing his tallit (less obvious at a bris after shacharit also, I suppose), about how this is one of the few mitzvot that could be delegated to someone else to perform, etc.

There was also the interesting choice of having communal singing at a few different points in the ceremony, including during the actual bris itself, besides a pause for the brachot. I don't know if it was meant to calm the baby, calm the congregation, keep people occupied, or help people to see it as a spiritual experience, but it was fairly effective at Something, although I'm not entirely sure what. I don't know how common that practice is in this context, but it's something I'd be interested in finding out.

There were of course the obvious differences, in terms of the gender of people who participated, but I think that was less significant than the different attitude- there was no "offering of words" by persons x,y, and z at the earlier bris I attended, while there were a lot of them at this one. I'm not sure how much of that reflects different parental decisions versus different cultural expectations. But it did create a different focus- there was more emphasis placed on the choice of name, the family relationship with the infant and such things as well as the performance of the mitzvah. (I rather wonder how much of that is the Conservative rather than Orthodox cultural dynamic or sense of aesthetics, and how much, if any, is some reverse pollination from simchat bat ceremonies and such.)

Silly Thoughts and Others
Although I haven't seen jessebeller in quite a long time, I had this odd moment where I walked by Steve, whom I'd never before seen sans beard, and who has just shaved (odd time choice) and almost thought it was jessebeller, not that he'd have any particular reason to be sitting in the JTS sanctuary with a guitar. Odd moment. (Especially as Steve is the second individual to remind me of jessebeller in the last couple of weeks.)

We're supposed to be just reading through our next reading for Hebrew class- except our teacher just sent us a rather long vocab list to prepare before class and bring in. This seems rather different from just reading the thing to me... (Teaching us to read using context clues and such seems like it might be a wise thing to teach, since I expect people have gotten rusty since we've built stronger English vocabularies from when we were kids. I know my skills there have gotten rusty, that's for sure. Oh well.)

I'd thought I was supposed to have a quiz on Second Kings tomorrow, but it turns out that said quiz is next week. This is useful, as this week is rather packed.

There was a dinner tonight for rabbinical and cantorial students and faculty with chancellor Eisen about the decision to admit gay and lesbian students to said schools at JTS. I'm not sure what I think about said dinner yet- I'll probably talk about it at some point. But now- off to work on massive quantities of torah reading...

Some Ritual Thoughts, Some Silly Thoughts

Ritual Thoughts
Yesterday I attended the bris of the baby of the couple near who I generally sit in shul. (Said baby is completely adorable, naturally, and his parents look marvelously happy.) I was really interested by the ceremony itself: it's only the second bris I've attended, and it was totally different in organization and atmosphere from that of sharonaf's son's bris. This one was also head in shul, meaning at JTS, but after mincha on a Sunday, and there was rather a larger crowd with many more friends of the parents, while most of the family was immediate family- the baby's grandparents, aunts and I think a great-aunt or two.

The ritual structure was also much clearer- although it was hard for me to tell at the previous bris due to sanctuary layout (the bris was at the very front of the shul, and there was a Large space between that and the ladies' section: I couldn't hear very much besides the actual bracha and the baby crying). I'm not sure who was saying what when there, whereas at this bris it was very readily apparent, including a rather surprising amount of announcing who'd be doing what- a lot of "and now the baby's maternal grandparents will offer some words" "and now Steve will sing a niggun" "and now Steve's sisters will offer some words". There was a lot of acknowledging various relatives and a few friends at the seminary- the father's chevruta, a particular pair of friends... In the same vein, there was this air of the bris being a teaching opportunity- there were some explanations included for the less informed- about why the baby's father was wearing his tallit (less obvious at a bris after shacharit also, I suppose), about how this is one of the few mitzvot that could be delegated to someone else to perform, etc.

There was also the interesting choice of having communal singing at a few different points in the ceremony, including during the actual bris itself, besides a pause for the brachot. I don't know if it was meant to calm the baby, calm the congregation, keep people occupied, or help people to see it as a spiritual experience, but it was fairly effective at Something, although I'm not entirely sure what. I don't know how common that practice is in this context, but it's something I'd be interested in finding out.

There were of course the obvious differences, in terms of the gender of people who participated, but I think that was less significant than the different attitude- there was no "offering of words" by persons x,y, and z at the earlier bris I attended, while there were a lot of them at this one. I'm not sure how much of that reflects different parental decisions versus different cultural expectations. But it did create a different focus- there was more emphasis placed on the choice of name, the family relationship with the infant and such things as well as the performance of the mitzvah. (I rather wonder how much of that is the Conservative rather than Orthodox cultural dynamic or sense of aesthetics, and how much, if any, is some reverse pollination from simchat bat ceremonies and such.)

Silly Thoughts and Others
Although I haven't seen jessebeller in quite a long time, I had this odd moment where I walked by Steve, whom I'd never before seen sans beard, and who has just shaved (odd time choice) and almost thought it was jessebeller, not that he'd have any particular reason to be sitting in the JTS sanctuary with a guitar. Odd moment. (Especially as Steve is the second individual to remind me of jessebeller in the last couple of weeks.)

We're supposed to be just reading through our next reading for Hebrew class- except our teacher just sent us a rather long vocab list to prepare before class and bring in. This seems rather different from just reading the thing to me... (Teaching us to read using context clues and such seems like it might be a wise thing to teach, since I expect people have gotten rusty since we've built stronger English vocabularies from when we were kids. I know my skills there have gotten rusty, that's for sure. Oh well.)

I'd thought I was supposed to have a quiz on Second Kings tomorrow, but it turns out that said quiz is next week. This is useful, as this week is rather packed.

There was a dinner tonight for rabbinical and cantorial students and faculty with chancellor Eisen about the decision to admit gay and lesbian students to said schools at JTS. I'm not sure what I think about said dinner yet- I'll probably talk about it at some point. But now- off to work on massive quantities of torah reading...