So being true to the title, here are some assorted thoughts/happenings from the past few days...
1. OMG shabbat starts crazy early, it starts around 4pm here, which is ridiculous. This is partially why I don't write on Fridays anymore, I just have no time. oyyy.
2. I went to Friday night services at Yakar for the second time. One thing that I LOVE about services there is how loud everyone sings. I love being able to belt it out and not feel like everyone can hear me. Everyone is singing very loudly with a lot of spirit and it is wonderful. The shaliach tsibur (prayer leader) for kabbalat shabbat was really great, he had a magnificent voice.
3. I learned something new! So I got to services earlier than usual so it was still Minchah (the afternoon service that is typically done right before kabbalat shabbat, the service that welcomes shabbat). Anyways to end the service we did the "barchu" the call to prayer which is done towards the beginning of the service, and had already been done in the appropriate place. I was very confused at first, and I thought maybe something got messed up so they had to say the barchu again for some reason. So as luck would have it the next day I was reading the Jewish law section in my Koren prayer book and it was talking about what a Jew in the Diaspora should do in Israel in regards to the different traditions, so if the Jew should do what they normally do or change their practices to fit with the way it is done in Israel. (an example of this is how in Israel they do one day of most holidays and we do two in the diaspora, or add on an additional day, ex passover). ANYWAYS one thing it mentioned was how many congregations in Israel say the barchu at the end of the weekday service...
4. Saturday morning I chanted Torah, yay. I signed up to chant at kedem (suprise, suprise), because (1) I want some practice and (2) I feel like I should contribute more to the community since I go all the time and (3) reading from the Torah is so cool, and such an honor. So I chanted the first aliyah, which was a good chunk of text for an inexperienced chanter like me. But yeah it was cool especially because I got to chant about Jacobs ladder and one of my favorite lines "Behold, God is in the place and I did not know it" that's a poor translation, but yeah I dig it. I can just hear this wonder/awe in Jacob's voice when he says it, it's a cool realization. I've definitely had some awe-inspiring moments that I can kind of tie into this, I mean certainly not the level of seeing angels and hearing God's voice, but I can still relate... (If you want to look up this weeks portion it starts Genesis 28:10-32:3)
5. I'm still obsessed with spinning. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but yeah it's the best thing evahhh. Def gets my endorphins going. I actually just got back from spinning. I'm also learning lots of "practical" hebrew, like the word for accelerate and resistance. haha
6. Ahh I can't believe I forgot to mention this until now...I went to an Idan Raichel Project concert on Thursday night. It was SOOOO GOOD. Everyone on the stage at that concert was SO friggin talented. It was really beautiful. They also played a lot of the songs I really like so yay. Also we did that weird Israeli synchronized clapping thing I wrote about earlier haha
7. I found Franks red hot sauce in the store the other day and got really excited and bought some. I've been eating it on everything (now I sound like the commercials, minus the swearing) because I'm just so excited about it and it reminds me of America hahaha
I think that's about it for now. Life is good/busy/frustrating, yes it is all of them at the same time.
B
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