Yom Kippur Win!!!!
Whee, Yom Kippur!
Yom Kippur was awesome. Really awesome. I was at SCM for Kol Nidrei, and D-Wal did a great job, and I gave him a hug and told him that he was my favorite person in the world right then.
Then this morning I led shacharit at TBS. Despite some last-minute things being thrown at me, I felt like I did a really good job.
Then I got a crazy idea in my head during the haftarah, which was that I knew all along that by leading shacharit at TBS, I was giving up being able to be at SCM for Mussaf. For the ability to be able to lead YK shacharit, I thought it was worth it. But looking at the time, it was only 11:45, and I was done with everything I needed to do at TBS, and it's only a 15 minute walk to SCM. And their shacharit is longer than ours, because they have a machzor which doesn't cut out all of the piyutim I bet I could catch most of Mussaf if I walked over there right now!
So that's exactly what I did. And I got there in 15 minutes, because I walk fast, even while deprived of nutrition, and a bit more tired than I would have otherwise been, because leading shacharit took a lot out of me. (Thank you, cynara_linnaea for teaching me how to walk fast. Or at least walking fast enough that I had to learn how to walk fast to keep up with you. I outwalk all of the tall people in my life now!)
As I walked, I prepared myself for the fact that I might get there after some of the really cool stuff, and I would have to just be happy getting to be there for what I was there for.
I got there. They were still reading the haftarah! (I could have walked at a leisurely pace!) People were a bit surprised to see me. "Weren't you supposed to be leading services at TBS?"
"Yes. And I did. And then I came here."
So I got to be there for all of Mussaf. And it was awesome. Totally worth the insanity of running across town 1.8 miles while fasting.
I took a nap before Mincha. I had all along planned on being there in case elfsdh need me to give him the starting notes of the hatzi kaddish of YK Mincha, since him and I are the only people in Cambridge who know it, and he only learned it a week ago when he found out he was leading Mincha. I actually woke up to them announcing "Mincha will begin on page [n]."
I ran downstairs, and joined services. And was feeling cold. And realized that there were a bunch of tallitot in the back, and I could wear one. I picked a large wool one that was nice and warm.
Mincha was faster than what it would have been if I had been leading it, since my nusach is made of ridiculous. (And elfsdh didn't actually need the starting notes again.) Neilah was awesome and had lots of singing and still finished 5 minutes early. I discovered the secret to being able to stand for all of Neilah: have an empty chair in front of you. Put prayerbook there. Pick up only when you don't have everything memorized and actually need to be saying things. There you go, now you're not holding this huge book for an hour!
And ma'ariv was fast. Blessedly fast.
And then I ate a bunch of food and drank a bunch of water and came home and ate more food and drank more water. And then I wrote this post.
The short version, completely in English!:
The Day of Atonement was really awesome, even though I was insane and ran across town 1.8 miles while fasting.
Yom Kippur was awesome. Really awesome. I was at SCM for Kol Nidrei, and D-Wal did a great job, and I gave him a hug and told him that he was my favorite person in the world right then.
Then this morning I led shacharit at TBS. Despite some last-minute things being thrown at me, I felt like I did a really good job.
Then I got a crazy idea in my head during the haftarah, which was that I knew all along that by leading shacharit at TBS, I was giving up being able to be at SCM for Mussaf. For the ability to be able to lead YK shacharit, I thought it was worth it. But looking at the time, it was only 11:45, and I was done with everything I needed to do at TBS, and it's only a 15 minute walk to SCM. And their shacharit is longer than ours, because they have a machzor which doesn't cut out all of the piyutim I bet I could catch most of Mussaf if I walked over there right now!
So that's exactly what I did. And I got there in 15 minutes, because I walk fast, even while deprived of nutrition, and a bit more tired than I would have otherwise been, because leading shacharit took a lot out of me. (Thank you, cynara_linnaea for teaching me how to walk fast. Or at least walking fast enough that I had to learn how to walk fast to keep up with you. I outwalk all of the tall people in my life now!)
As I walked, I prepared myself for the fact that I might get there after some of the really cool stuff, and I would have to just be happy getting to be there for what I was there for.
I got there. They were still reading the haftarah! (I could have walked at a leisurely pace!) People were a bit surprised to see me. "Weren't you supposed to be leading services at TBS?"
"Yes. And I did. And then I came here."
So I got to be there for all of Mussaf. And it was awesome. Totally worth the insanity of running across town 1.8 miles while fasting.
I took a nap before Mincha. I had all along planned on being there in case elfsdh need me to give him the starting notes of the hatzi kaddish of YK Mincha, since him and I are the only people in Cambridge who know it, and he only learned it a week ago when he found out he was leading Mincha. I actually woke up to them announcing "Mincha will begin on page [n]."
I ran downstairs, and joined services. And was feeling cold. And realized that there were a bunch of tallitot in the back, and I could wear one. I picked a large wool one that was nice and warm.
Mincha was faster than what it would have been if I had been leading it, since my nusach is made of ridiculous. (And elfsdh didn't actually need the starting notes again.) Neilah was awesome and had lots of singing and still finished 5 minutes early. I discovered the secret to being able to stand for all of Neilah: have an empty chair in front of you. Put prayerbook there. Pick up only when you don't have everything memorized and actually need to be saying things. There you go, now you're not holding this huge book for an hour!
And ma'ariv was fast. Blessedly fast.
And then I ate a bunch of food and drank a bunch of water and came home and ate more food and drank more water. And then I wrote this post.
The short version, completely in English!:
The Day of Atonement was really awesome, even though I was insane and ran across town 1.8 miles while fasting.