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Dear Everyone, How was your Yom Tov? Good? Us too. OK. Bye. Oh, you want the *details*... Shanah Tova / K'sivah Vechasima Tova As you know, since Rosh Hashanah fell out on Thursday and Friday, it was a 3-day event with Shabbos added on. We don't often have 3-day yommim tovim in Israel because usually we only have one day of chag. For a chag to fall on a Friday is very unusual. However, even in Israel Rosh Hashanah is two days. You should have seen the supermarket on Wednesday afternoon. There are two supermarkets near where we live. They are located opposite each other with a big courtyard in between. There is also a bakery, which is quite new. All of these shops were completely packed. I could not even find a trolley to go shopping with! I had to wait near the car park and try to get someone's trolley before they returned it. I'm sure that there is a business idea in there somewhere! I managed to get a trolley after a short wait, not that it helped much - I could barely enter the supermarket. I think everyone in the entire city had gone shopping on erev-Rosh Hashanah! I looked at what the other shoppers were buying and it struck me that they were not even buying food for Rosh Hashanah, but they were stocking up on other things (like laundry powder) - it was almost as if this was the last time they would ever be able to go shopping again! The supermarket is quite large and the isles are wide, but maneuvering around inside was nightmarish. Finally I managed to find most of the things on my shopping list and then I waited in line for longer than it took me to do the shopping! Leaving the supermarket was a relief - all I had to do was find a taxi to take me and my shopping home. That was another challenge! Once Rosh Hashanah arrived, I started to settle down into the mood of the day. There are loudspeakers on the top of my building that play festive music before sounding the siren to signal that Yom Tov has arrived. The music started to play and the siren wailed. I kissed my children and headed off for shule. I am a member of a little shule not too far from where we live, about a five-minute walk from my place. I pass about three or four other shules on the way, but I quite like davening in a small shtibel-like shule. There are only about 30 men who daven there and I have a really good connection with the Rabbi. The Rabbi and the Gabbai shared most of the davening between them and their chazonus was very pleasant. The Rabbi has a very sweet voice, which tends to capture the essence of the davening. I found his singing very moving at times. We finished davening on the first night of Rosh Hashanah in good time and I felt energized by the experience. When I returned home, Leah had the table set and the kids looked sparkling clean. Everything we ate had honey it - honey on the challah, honey on apples, honeyed chicken, honeyed pumpkin and honey cake - luckily we like honey! It's funny, though, that we don't really eat lots of honey during the year, but honey chicken and honey on apples is quite tasty, so I don't know why we don't eat it more often! The weather over Rosh Hashanah was very hot. The air conditioning in the shule was quite effective, although I would have preferred it to be a little bit stronger. At some stages it became quite hot even with the air conditioner blowing. We began davening at 7.15am. There was no speech during the davening and we finished at about 2pm or so. There was a short break somewhere in the middle for kiddush - chips, drinks, crackers and a bit of cake. The food really helped me to concentrate on my davening, especially since my mouth was dry and the heat of the day was beginning to take its toll, despite the air conditioning. It was an inspiring davening and I felt quite cleansed afterwards. Lunchtime arrived. We didn't have any guests, nor were we guests, for the whole yom tov. We would have preferred to have people over to share in the yom tov with us, but in a way it was nice that we spent time with each other. Leah was at home most of the time with the kids, but managed to come to shule for shofar blowing. The Gabbai was also the one who blew the shofar. It was a really clear blowing. He didn't falter on a single note - clear and strong, just how it should be. On the second day, I blew the shofar for Leah and our neighbour who made it to shule, but missed the first few blasts because they started blowing about 15 minutes earlier than the advertised time (that's probably the first recorded incident of a shule event happening early!). My blowing wasn't as good as the Gabbai's, but I think I did OK. The second day was a repeat of the first day - shule finished the same time, the weather was just as hot and we ate just as much honey! G'mar Chatima Tova The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur flew quickly. Before we knew it, Yom Kippur was upon us. Because Yom Kippur fell on Shabbos, we didn't have the usual Shabbos kiddush or sing Shalom Aleichem. It was a bit strange to "miss" a week of Shabbos. The weather seemed to cool down quite a bit on Yom Kippur so the fasting was much easier than I had expected. Leah felt the same. Although I started to get a bit of a headache in the morning, it disappeared and I felt quite well the rest of the day, despite the fact that I stood for the whole davening. The Rabbi was the chazzan for Kol Nidre. He projected his voice very well. This meant that wherever you were, you could hear him clearly, even when his voice was low. This was especially important for the women. Our shule is located in a converted apartment and the only place for the women to sit is in an adjacent room. While this is sufficient for most of the year, Yom Kippur davening has a few tefillos that the chazzan sings in a low voice. I was glad that the Rabbi took this into consideration when davening. The same people who were there for Rosh Hashanah were there for Yom Kippur and it almost felt like we were a group of people going on a journey together through the chagim. Walking back home after Kol Nidre was a refreshing experience, with an unexpected cool breeze softly blowing on my face. The night was clear and as I walked down the center of the road (of course there are no cars on Shabbos - how much more so on Yom Kippur?!) I felt an unusual sense of freedom. We began davening in the morning at about 7.15am and had a break for a few hours at about 1.40pm or so. Although my legs were sore at the beginning of the day, I seemed to get used to the standing and was very comfortable during the rest of the davening. I brought a little shtender with me to shule so that I would not have to hold my machzor all day. In fact, Leah had bought for me a new set of machzorim for the Yomim Noraim and Shalosh Regalim. I thoroughly enjoyed davening from these new machzorim as they are geared towards the nusach of the davening for Israel. Many of the tunes that we sang during the davening were different tunes to those that I am used to. I always look forward to revisiting the tunes from the past and was a little disappointed that I missed out on them. A lot of them were Bresslover tunes that have become popular even in the non-Bresslov shules. At least it was an opportunity to learn a few new tunes, which ended up revolving around my head for the next week or so. Of course, everyone was wearing white "kittles" and I proudly sported my kittle with wine stains on it from Pesach - I was told that it is a good omen not to wash off the wine stains from wine that I spilt on Pesach because it "reminds" Hashem that I have been doing His mitzvos. Needless to say, the first thing we washed after Yom Kippur was my kittle, which is now as white as snow and ready for next Pesach in 6 months time! A strange thing happened during Mincha. Right in the middle of Torah reading the safety-switch kicked in. Consequently, the lights went out - along with the air conditioning. There was still enough light coming through the windows to see, but we all knew that the sun was setting and soon we would not be able to see a thing. The Rabbi quickly consulted some books and after Mincha was over, he stood up to give a talk. He talked about the complex laws of asking a non-Jew to do actions for you on Shabbos that you are forbidden to do yourself - like turning on the switch etc. It was an excellent talk and I learned a lot - especially how much I didn't know about this topic. While he was speaking, some members of the shule had left the building to find a non-Jew. That is not such an easy thing in Ramat Beit Shemesh - a town of 50,000 Jews! There are foreign workers (from Thailand and the Philippines etc) who come to Israel to work on construction jobs etc but very few who are actually resident in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Our hero, however, was a Russian who lived in an apartment a few blocks away. Once it was firmly established that his mother was not Jewish, he came to our rescue - the lights were back on and the air conditioning running, so we could begin Neilla with a sense of relief (and the ability to breathe!) When Yom Kippur was over, Leah and I sat down to a nice light meal, while the kids played on the floor. Naturally, they didn't fast and were very good about letting us eat while they kept themselves occupied. The fast ended in the early evening (I can't remember what time, probably somewhere around 6 or 7pm). I wasn't really so hungry. I was thirsty, though, because although it wasn't particularly hot (I guess, comparatively, at least!), it was a long and draining day. Good Yom Tov / Chag Sameach I had constructed the Sukkah on our balcony prior to Yom Kippur. I wanted to buy wooden panels that screw or bolt together to make a nice and sturdy Sukkah. Last year I threw together some strange contraption, loosely based on our pre-fabricated parachute-material Sukkah we schlepped from Australia that didn't really fit on our balcony. Before we bought the parachute-material Sukkah, I (with Aba's help) had constructed various Sukkot over the years made from old doors and discarded pieces of timber. I recalled these "homely" Sukkot of the past but decided that this year we were going to have a proper Sukkah with solid walls. However, it was not to be. The wooden panels turned out to be a little too expensive so, yet again, I had to improvise. I was determined not to use the parachute-material Sukkah - which last year was balanced precariously on two brooms wedged in the railings of our balcony. Over the previous few weeks I had been building the Sukkah in my mind, trying to come up with a good design. We have two sliding doors on our balcony that detach quite easily (often by themselves!) They are louvered doors made of heavy plastic and metal. I removed them and lined them up against the side of the balcony to form one wall. I constructed another wall out of a combination of an old bathroom door (there is the door again!) and a large and heavy cardboard box. The third wall was made from a piece of wood (originally the cover of the pine box used to transport our glass table-top from Australia) and another heavy cardboard box. I managed to rescue some discarded planks of wood to supplement the wood I saved from last year to use as support beams for the schach. Our little Sukkah looked a bit rag-tag, but Leah had the brilliant idea of covering the walls with colourful bed-sheets. The Sukkah looked terrific. The colours of the bed sheets made it look a bit like an African tent, but we were commemorating the huts the Jews dwelt in for 40 years in the desert, so perhaps this was a little bit in the spirit of things! I didn't put the schach on the roof until after Yom Kippur. Leah helped me arrange the schach and it was "almost" complete. The only thing left to do was to put up the decorations. Considering that my kids were practically born with crayons in their hands, this was not going to be a problem. When I returned from work the following day, the Sukkah was filled with beautiful decorations - some hand-made and others were bought from the Sukkah Center down the road. Let me explain to you about how pre-Sukkos works here, in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Every shule, courtyard, parking lot and empty space becomes occupied overnight by people selling all sorts of Sukkos related stuff - everything from wooden boards to screws and nails to decorations to lullavim and etrogim. Wherever you go you can find pre-fabricated Sukkot for sale, cheaper than cheap decorations and everyone has the best quality lullavim for the cheapest price! I have a friend who lives across the park (about a seven-minute walk from my place). He set up a lullav and etrog stand in his parking lot. I went to him at about 9pm one night to look for a lullav and etrog to buy but I had to leave quite quickly so I didn't have time to make a purchase. I told him that I'd be back, but I gave him a "blessing". I said that I hope that by the time I return there won't be any stock left! Well, I returned later that night and indeed some of the stock was sold. I still managed to pick up two very nice sets - one for myself and one for Anton, who was to be staying with us for the first day of Sukkos. I took the two sets home and happened to notice Rabbi Stawski sitting in his dining room in his ground floor apartment in our building. I thought that being 11pm it was too late to impose on the Rabbi, but I thought I'd just enquire as to when would be a good time to come downstairs for him to check the lullavim and etrogim. When he answered the door, he was insistent that I come in right then - he said that he wouldn't want to inconvenience me by making me schlep the two sets of lullavim downstairs again when I am there right now with them in my hands! He was very pleased to say that I made good choices and both sets were "mehudar". Anton arrived just before the Yom Tov started. The Sukkah was looking really beautiful with the table set so nicely. The kids were dressed and ready for the chag and the candles were lit. It was especially nice walking home from shule, looking at all the lights on in the Sukkot around the neighbourhood. Some were the pre-fabricated variety and others were knocked together out of different materials, like mine. I noticed that others had a similar idea to me and used the sliding louvered doors as walls. There was a cool breeze and when I returned from shule, we settled down to a very nice meal in our Sukkah. We could hear the neighbours singing - in fact, we could hear half of Ramat Beit Shemesh singing in their Sukkot. It was a very festive and relaxed atmosphere. That night, we removed the table and chairs from the Sukkah, set up some mattresses and settled down to sleep in the Sukkah. We were ostensibly sleeping outside (makeshift walls and a roof made of bamboo does not provide much privacy) and we could hear people in neighbouring Sukkot settling down for the night. Our first-floor neighbour sneezed and Rabbi Stawski replied "labriyut" ("bless you") from his Sukkah downstairs! The weather was sublime. The relaxing aroma of the festival was in the air. The hushed melodies of families singing in their Sukkot around the neighbourhood was soft and sweet. And there we were: Anton, myself and three children lying on thin mattresses on the tiled floor of our balcony. I quipped that all we needed to do was replace the tiles with sand and it would really be authentic! After the Yom Tov was over (we only have one day here), I felt that it would be a nice thing to sit in the Sukkah and have a bit of a singsong. I borrowed a guitar from the Stawskis downstairs (their daughter plays the guitar) and Anton strummed wonderful tunes as we sang and munched on cake in the Sukkah. Rabbi Stawski was impressed with Anton's playing (naturally he could hear it from his Sukkah downstairs) and invited us all in to his Sukkah. We were so busy talking with the Rabbi and telling stories that we forgot to sing! Never the less, it was a wonderful time and the kids felt very comfortable with the Rabbi. In fact, Rabbi Stawski has a rule that if any child comes to visit, they must give him a kiss on his cheek before they leave (obviously only boys - he won't kiss girls above the age of 3). Shimi and Zvi had no hesitation in sitting on the Rabbi's lap while he pinched their cheeks. Shimi even answered a lot of the Rabbi's questions (in Hebrew) and Zvi was also not shy. But Racheli is the Rabbi's favourite! He said that Zvi is a chochom, Shimi is a tzadik, but "Ein Kemoh Racheli!" ("There is none like Racheli!"). Gutt Moed / Moed Tov Davening at shule on Chol HaMoed was at 7.15am - much later than other shules - and I was grateful for the extra sleep-in. Aside from the earliest minyanim, most shules started at around 6.00 or 6.30am. Many of the shules hosted a "Simchas Beis Hashoevoh" at varying times during Chol HaMoed with dancing and live music. On Motzei Shabbos the Gra Shule (a few minutes away) hosted a Simchas Beis Hashoevoh with a band and dancing etc, which you could hear from my place. Leah went up to our neighbour's roof where they were hosting a Simchas Beis Hashoevoh for the ladies. Sunday was a mad mad mad day. We decided to do the unspeakable and try to achieve 3 things in the one day - all in Yerushalayim. Someone forgot to bring the key to the Aron Kodesh on Sunday morning so davening was delayed while the guilty party went home to retrieve the key. This was not a good start. We were on a tight schedule. Once davening was over, we packed our bags, threw some clothes on the kids (Zvi and Shimi looked very cute in black trousers, white shirts and matching vests) and raced for the 10.30 bus. To our delight there were some people waiting at the stop who wanted to take the same bus as us - this meant that the 417 bus had not been and gone. We waited until about 11am and the bus came. It turns out that on Chol HaMoed the bus services are reduced from once every half hour to once an hour. We disembarked in Geulah shortly before midday. We decided that because the kids were thirsty, we should stop in Geulah and buy something for them to drink. We found a very nice take-out place with a kosher Sukkah, tucked away in a side street . The kids drank iced-juice and we treated ourselves to hot chips. After a short time we decided that time was running out to get to our first stop. Being somewhat familiar with Geulah, I decided that the best place to catch a cab would be on Malchei Yisroel, the main shopping strip of Geulah. We waited and waited and waited. A few taxis passed, but they were all taken. We were amused to note that although there were fewer cars, fewer taxis and fewer busses, there were still traffic jams! We decided that we might be more successful waiting for a cab on Strauss. We caught a taxi within 30 seconds and were whisked off to our first planned destination - Leah and Ben's home in Neve Yaakov. Arriving in Neve Yaakov, we spotted Ben coming home from shule. He helped us get our things upstairs to his apartment. There was a note on the door that Leah S had left for us inviting us in and instructing us where to find cold drinks. She had put the kids to bed and was resting. Leah S emerged shortly after we arrived (in the mean time, Ben had plied us with juice). By 2pm we were sitting down in their Sukkah to a wonderful meal of steak and potatoes, salads and dry red wine. There were other guests there as well. The funny thing is that the two guys who joined us last year for a meal in the Simmons' Sukkah were the same people who joined us this year. They are from the US and happened to be on a trip to Israel, called up Ben to keep in touch who subsequently invited them for a meal. So we reunited with Ben's old friends! It's almost a tradition! At 4.30pm we benched and hastily ordered a cab, which arrived within about ten minutes. We were in a rush to get to destination number two. Time was running out - a race against the clock. For the first time since we have been in Israel, we found ourselves with a taxi driver who actually drives at or below the legal speed. How frustrating! We arrived in Minchas Yitzchok, at the home of Shmuel (Eric) and Gittel Davis shortly after 5pm. When we arranged to meet with them, they told us that the day we wanted to come and visit, they were going to Ramat Beit Shemesh to visit Shmuel's sister! They generously put off their trip to RBS for a day and were very happy to host us in their Sukkah. The problem was that we had to be at destination number 3 at 5pm, and I still hadn't davened Mincha. We managed to spend a few minutes in their Sukkah before I had to race off to shule. When I returned, I found that the children had made themselves very comfortable in the courtyard playing ball with Shalom Yosef (the Davis' son) while Leah sat in the Sukkah with Shmuel and Gittel. We managed to stay for only half an hour in total. We apologized profusely that they rearranged their whole schedule to accommodate us and we only stayed a short time. They wouldn't let us apologize and told us that they were happy to see us after such a long time between visits - it really has been many months and I was glad to see Shmuel again. Our third and final destination was Rabbi Rubanowitz's home, two flights down from the Davis'. The Rubanowitz's were hosting a Simchas Beis Hashoevoh for the shule. They have a large Sukkah that was able to accommodate everyone comfortably. We arrived just in time to hear one of the members of the shule reciting the Kaddish - he had finished learning a section of Mishnah. We immediately davened Maariv in the dining room. After davening, we gathered around the table to help ourselves to the meal that the Rabbi's wife had laid out so beautifully. The dining table was laden with all sorts of delicious foods - lasagna, a variety of pastas, quiches and kugels, corn chips, dips and cheesy things that drip when you bite them. While we sat down to eat in the Sukkah, the kids made themselves at home running around with the other children. Racheli sat with Leah and Akiva Meir just sat there and smiled at whoever was looking at him at the time! There was another siyyum on Mishnah followed by a speech from the Rabbi. He spoke about how friendship is so important and how he feels close to all of the people who had come to participate in the Simchas Beis Hashoevoh. The Rabbi then had us working in groups to brainstorm answers to some perplexing questions regarding friendship. It was an interesting exercise, albeit somewhat unconventional for a Simchas Beis Hashoevoh! Here were the problems we had to solve: 1) You are employed by a company and have been asked to hire a new employee. You have a friend who you know will do the job adequately, but not brilliantly. You also have other applicants who are much better qualified than your friend and are likely to do a better job. To whom should you give the job? 2) Your friend admits to you in confidence that he has embezzled money. What would you do? 3) You have been saving for 3 years for a holiday. After all this time, your family really needs this holiday and would be devastated if it were cancelled. Your friend approaches you and tells you that he literally has no money in the bank even for basics. What do you do? At the end of the evening we were unable to find a lift back to RBS as all the people either had full cars or were not returning directly to RBS. We walked for about 15 minutes back to Geulah (pretty much where we started!) and caught the 417 back to RBS. Although I tried not to fall asleep outside of the Sukkah, I could not help but plummet to sleep as the bus careened its way back to familiar territory. We managed to plonk into bed/mattress somewhere around midnight. Monday: the day began with me going to shule. When I arrived back home, the kids were either still asleep or lethargically lolling around the house. It did not look like it was going to be a productive day. It wasn't. Tuesday: We decided that a petting zoo advertised in the local advertising bulletin would be a nice family outing for the day. We managed to get ourselves together somewhere during the late morning or early afternoon. We called a taxi (which turned out to be one of the mini-van drivers who once collected Racheli to take her to school) and we left RBS via the scenic back route. The petting zoo was located on a moshav called "Bar Giora" not too far from Beitar, about 15-20 minutes from RBS. The whole way to the zoo, Racheli was going on about how she was going to hold and pat bunnies. We prayed that there would be bunnies for her to hold, otherwise we would have one very disappointed little girl on our hands. We piled out of the minivan, paid the taxi driver and entered the petting zoo. The first thing we saw (alongside the rows and rows of chickens, roosters and other fowl of various shapes, colours and sizes) were rabbits! There was also an enclosed area where children could sit and hold them. We were relieved beyond words! We spent most of the time with the bunnies. Racheli liked to hold the brown bunny that was smaller than the white ones, but not as small as the guinea pigs that she described as "Ooooh. Ichsa!" (translation: yuk!). We even named the rabbit "Bunny Banana". Why? It sounds funny! After an interminable time with the bunnies, we ventured outside and caught the end of a goat-milking session (hand milking). A flock of sheep baaaaa'd past us at one stage and the donkey in the corner chewed hay, waiting for the next donkey-ride session. The layout of the petting zoo was a little rough. It didn't seem like a professional arrangement at all. Leah noted that there was a sign above a series of children's tables stating that it was "The Art Corner". I asked Leah what was there. She replied, "A box of crayons. No paper." So much for the art corner. The kids were getting hungry and after a brief walk we entered a Sukkah for something to eat. While we were happily munching on crackers, tuna salad and bottled water, Zvi and Shimi discovered a cow, a goat and a pony grazing nearby. Exciting. When we packed up our stuff and returned to the zoo area, we were told that they were baking pita the traditional way. We found a group of people (we couldn't figure out which of the people lived on the moshav and which were visiting) gathered around an outdoor stove baking pita. The stove was a pile of bricks with a metal dome on top. They would roll the dough and then skillfully toss it onto the metal dome. In a few moments one side of the dough would be baked and they would flip it over and bake the other side. It was interesting to watch, but we did not partake of the eating. The shadows were growing long and we felt it was time to head home. The driver who brought us to the farm was sitting nearby (he had made himself a bit of a business that day ferrying people between neighbouring towns and the zoo). We told him we were ready and he drove us back home. It was a lovely day out which the kids really enjoyed. That night, Leah walked past Racheli's room as she called out in her sleep "Banana!" Leah said that it is not time to eat bananas now, but time to sleep. Still asleep, Racheli replied, "No. Bunny Banana!" A Gutten K'Vittel Wednesday: Hashanah Rabah. I was pleasantly woken at 6.00am by the melodious voices of Rabbi Stawski and his congregation davening in his Sukkah! It was nice to awaken to the Chassidic harmonies of Hallel, although that meant that I slept through half of their davening! At our shule, davening took over 2.5 hours. When I arrived home, we all got into cleaning mood, getting ready for Yom Tov that night. For those of you who remember, last year Zvi and I distributed pekalach (lollies and sweets) to the children on Simchas Torah. [By the way, for those of you who are interested, the Rabbi *did* get his rose garden!] This year, albeit at a different shule, I volunteered to do the same and Zvi, Shimi and Racheli helped me pack the sweets into bags. We had a production line going. It wasn't very efficient, but at least the children enjoyed themselves. We tied each bag with blue curling ribbon and I safely stashed the pekalach away on top of the tall cupboards in the kitchen. Good Yom Tov / Chag Sameach Wednesday night arrived and so did Simchas Torah. Each Friday afternoon, I prepare the Shabbos licht by putting food colouring in the water. When the oil floats on top and the wicks are lit, the colours glow. It can look quite majestic. Being in the festive mood that I was (and although I was saving the following for Purim, I could all but help myself...) I put alternating colours of red, green and blue in our six candlesticks. The kids loved it and it made the lights look very festive/ I went to shule earlier than the children and took the pekalach with me. A few minutes before the dancing started, Leah arrived with the children. Zvi and Shimi hovered around me, enquiring every few moments if it is time to distribute the pekalach yet. "Now? Now? Now?" Then the dancing began and I held the bag, handed one pekaleh at a time to my helpers and sent them off to give the pekalach to the rest of the children. Most of the children were dancing with their fathers around the bimah and as they passed by, Zvi and Shimi would shove a pekaleh into the hand of the kids. We ended up running out, but only a few kids missed out. They were given individual lollies and lollipops that we had also brought with us as extras. Next year I plan to make more. I took both Zvi and Shimi on my shoulders simultaneously (it gets harder and harder every year!) and danced around the bima for quite some time. They loved it. I took Racheli and also Akiva Meir (it was his first Simchas Torah!) Racheli had fun, but when I took Akiva Meir, he just had this open-mouthed look of wonderment on his face, taking in all the movement and sounds of the singing. After I returned Akiva Meir to his mother, I loaded my pockets with lollies and danced around the shule. I shook each person's hand and wished them a Good Yom Tov, leaving a lolly in their palms. Each hakofe went for approximately 15 minutes, as planned, except for the final one, which lasted quite some time. We ended off with "L'shonoh Haboh BiYerushalayim". I made it home somehow - my voice was shot, my legs were aching and I was exhausted. We said Kiddush, an ice-cold beer helped me to get through the first two courses and then I was completely finished, collapsing on my bed shortly after benching. The sleep did me good and my voice, such as it was, was coming back. But when I was asked to daven Shacharis from the Amud, I had to refuse. A few moments later, the Gabbai returned to me and said that there is nobody else to do it and that I had no choice. I motioned to him that I had no voice, but he replied that I was the only one. I looked around the shule. There must have been 50 people there but he insisted that I was the only one who could lead the davening. I recall that I completely frazzled my voice on Purim and they asked me to daven Maariv from the amud (Motzei Purim). I refused then as well, but was told the same story - there is nobody else! Yeah, right. I figured that this was a bit of a joke, but the Gabbai was so insistent that after refusing three times I really had no choice. My voice was much deeper and throatier than usual, and surprisingly, after a little while, my voice loosened up a bit and I managed to daven a decent davening (perhaps they think that I daven better when I have no voice!) The Rabbi approached me a few moments before the repetition of the Shmone Esrei and instructed me to make Hallel as tuneful as possible. With the help of the congregation (and a few miracles from the One Above) Hallel turned out very nice - confirmed by an approving nod from the Rabbi. Dancing. The hakofes were quite short, but very intense. I had the kibbud of leading one of the hakofes and my voice somehow held out, such as it was. Being part of the "chevra" I was also asked to lead a few lines from the song "Tzu Veimen" which was quite fun (especially when I tried to put on a chazonus-like voice when by that stage I could out-croak a frog - at least I got a few laughs!) Leining. When it was my turn to be called up to the Torah, I asked the Gabbai if I could lein. He agreed and I did. I didn't do such a great job. My throat was fighting to hold a note and I was all worked up from the dancing so when I looked at the Torah, the words swam before my eyes. I was pleased, though, that I gave it a go. I spent time learning the leining so I hope that it was, at least, adequate. Musaf. When the Rav realised that the Gabbaim had forgotten to provide a Kittle for him to wear during Musaf, I was sent home to bring mine. I practically ran home (which was fine because I couldn't walk from all the dancing!) and fetched my Kittle. When I returned to the shule, they were up to Yizkor, so it was good timing. The Rav took my Kittle and asked me for express permission to use it. I agreed but added, "Rabbi, you know that if you put on that Kittle, I'll never wash it again!" He replied with a broad smile. I was surprised that the Kittle fit him as he is about a head taller than me and broad shouldered. Needless to say, the Rabbi did a wonderful job. Lunch. Food and rest were the order of the afternoon. Leah and the kids let me sleep before I got up again and raced back to shule for the Rav's drosho at 3.30pm followed by Mincha and then a Simchas ha chag (cakes, pastries, some herring and soft drinks). The Chosson Torah (the Rabbi) and the Chosson Bereishis (the Chairman of the shule, Danny Wajnblum) spoke, as did one of the Gabbaim. Simchas Torah actually marks the one-year anniversary of the shule, so it was a very special Simchas ha chag. Yom tov ended at home with havdollah. The kids raced for their textas and crayons and began drawing all sorts of things the moment we put out the havdolloh flame. There was a pile of dishes in the sink and four baskets of laundry to be washed. Oy. There's only one thing left to say: Good Voch, Gut Yoh! - Oh, and tonight is Shabbos :-) Yossi Leah, Zvi, Shimi, Racheli and Akiva Meir |
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