I’m using the term liturgy loosely today, defined as the way Jews divide up time through ritual. That includes everything from how the service is structured to the the times at which Shabat arrives and departs to the way the Jewish year is constructed.
And so, the beginning of liturgy, of Jewish time, is contained in [...]
Entries from January 2009
January 31, 2009
The day liturgy began
January 30, 2009
Out here on the fringes, we wear the fringe
This rather long-winded post is crossposted to Jewschool, my first ever piece for them.
When the early Reform Jews of Germany set out to begin their Jewish Reformation, one of the first “arcane rituals” they tossed out was the practice wearing talit. They didn’t just stop a talit katan during the day, but the ceased to [...]
January 30, 2009
Jewschool, hits in the 200s, and a great start to the semester [updated 2/1]
Kung Fu Jew, one of the many bloggers of Jewschool, asked me recently to write a post for them about tzitzit. So I did. And now it’s up. Jewschool is one of the major, big-deal, important jblogs out there. They kind of helped invent jblogs. This has me feeling pretty excited and pretty vindicated. And [...]
January 30, 2009
Shabos Zmiros – Beit Habubot “Sigapo”
YouTube – בית הבובות – סיגפו Beit Habubot – Sigapo.
Probably my favorite Israeli band at the moment, Beit Habubot is pretty far off from Israeli groups we hear a lot of in the US, like Hadag Nachash. Beit Habubot uses a very sfarad-influenced guitar style. My favorite song of theirs is [...]
January 30, 2009
The secret to keeping your tzitzit clean and untangled
Over a year ago, at LimmudNY 2008, Yoni, one of the caterers, wondered aloud to me about why I wore tzitzit, but no kipah. It was a pretty standard conversation. At Limmud, it’s a conversation I have four or five times daily. At school, it happens at least once most days.
But my conversation with Yoni [...]
January 27, 2009
The Rethinking Reform Think Tank
The most personal and most moving session I attended at LimmudNY 2009 was called Rethinking Reform and was advertised as being led by members of the so-called Rethinking Reform Think Tank. I do not know who else is in this group, but those leading the session were Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning Executive Director [...]
January 25, 2009
Final shul-hop of my month in NYC: Kol Zimrah
Kol Zimrah is the premier progressive, non-denominational chavurah in New York City. They meet monthly for Kabalat Shabat and a veggie pot-luck dinner in an Episcopal church.
Overall, my impression was good. However, let us not forget that this is me we’re talking about and I can’t daven with any community without a few nits to [...]
January 20, 2009
LimmudNY goes off with a few hitches
From October to mid-December I worked part time for LimmudNY. Since mid-December, it’s been a full-time occupation. I’ve made copies, field angry phone calls, fielded confused phone calls, registered people for the conference over the phone, co-ordinated our wonderful volunteers, handed out money to our student fellows, and done just about everything else that happens [...]
January 10, 2009
Gaza. I’m gonna take a stand on it. For real this time.
I blogged earlier this week about the merits of praying for Israel’s military safety. But this evening, I’ll share my thoughts on the recent actions of both the Israelis and the Gazans.
This week, I welcomed Shabat at the New Shul, an innovative congregation in the Village. In lieu of a sermon this week, Don Sylvan, [...]
