41 and Shabat and who are you?

Only 8 days left until Shavuot; today is the 41st day of the Omer.
About a week ago, I wrote about my trip to Agudas Achim, the Conervative synagogue in Austin. Malka, my neighbor who I mentioned in the post, regularly goes to the weekday minyan at Agudas Achim. In the wake of my visit there, someone asked her, “Did you bring that Reform guy on Shabat? I read about it on his blog.” If you’re still there, whoever you are, [...]

40 and Part II of my review of a WUPJ service

We’re now less than ten days away from Shavuot.

Yesterday I reviewed the Kabalat Shabat section of a World Union for Progressive Judaism service. Today, I’ll continue my look at that service with Shma Uvirchoteiha, the Shma and its Blessings.
This section of the service is surprisingly complete in this sidur packet. We have, as one would expect from any Progressive [...]

39 and my review of a WUPJ service begins

Today is day 39 of the Omer. Only ten days left!
As noted here, I recently obtained a copy of an erev Shabat service used at a relatively recent World Union for Progressive Judaism convention. Today, I’ll begin reviewing it in little chunks. For some background on my overall feelings about Kabalat Shabat, go here. If [...]

38 and some old (new to me) sidurim

Day 38 yadda yadda Omer blah blah blah.
Yesterday was my mother’s birthday. Oddly, I recieved a present from her. She picked up a couple of sidurim for me at a Judaica shop in Vienna (correct in the comments if I’m wrong, Mom) several weeks ago while on vacation.
The first, this slim black volume, is part [...]

37 and is this working?

Today is the 37th day of the Omer. Shavuot is coming closer snd closer.
For the first time in the life of this blog, I have posted every day for over a month. Actually, forget the month. I’ve never posted every day during a week. I’m going to keep doing it until the Omer is over, [...]

36 and Yom Hazikaron Amerika’it

Not only is today the 36th day of the Omer, but here in the U.S. of A., it’s also Memorial Day.

I hadn’t planned on doing anything special for Memorial Day, but a friend my mother and I, Bob Fleischman, performed today at noon in the rotund of the Texas State Capitol with the Austin Chord Rangers barber shop quartet choir (don’t ask [...]

35 and some fun liturgical acquisitions

Today is the 35th day of the Omer. Only 14 days left!

I recently made two exciting, if obscure, liturgical acquisitions. The first is a pdf I found online of the Friday night service recently used at a World Union for Progressive Judaism international convention and the second, finally, after a lot of searching, is a [...]

34 and Shabat and my trip to Agudas Achim

It is the 34th day of the Omer.
I went this morning with my neighbor, Malka, to Shabat Shacharit at Congregation Agudas Achim, Austin’s Conservative synagogue. Normally I don’t go there, but I was operating on information that there would be a Bar Mitzvah service at my usual Reform congregation (blech!) and that the library minyan at my usual Reform congregation would be rather lame this week. So off I went with Malka, who also usually goes [...]

33 and Lag Ba’omer

Today is the 33rd day of the Omer, which makes it Lag Ba’omer, which is a very silly thing. Lag, by the way, is the vocalization of ל and ג , which are the Hebrew letters used to make 33 in the traditional Hebrew numerical system. What follows is a very long quote I have [...]

32 and a big WTF? from an Israeli Rabbinic Court

Day 32. Tomorrow is Lag Ba’omer. Time for a hair cut soon.
This shit is out of control. It has got to stop. It is unethical and it goes against Jewish law!
And now, the Omer: