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Thursday, September 27, 2012

How it went: Yom Kipppur 5773

Final meal (we eat once, not twice*)

Melon
Soup with kreplach (from a store)
Roast chicken
Roast potatoes
Israeli salad
Chocolate cake

Evening Services:

Started on time
Finished after 9 p.m.

Daytime Services

Started at 8 am
Finished at 3 p.m.
Started again at 4:45 p.m
Finished for good several minutes early

Break-fast **

Havdalah
Strawberry rhubarb pie
Herring
Potato soup
Shnitzel
More pie

Other notes:

In previous Yom Kippur run downs, I've praised the music in my synagogue. Not this year. With few exceptions, the selections were insipid, and crowd participation was weak. Really, it was one of the worst services I've attended. For most of the day, it seemed as if we were all half asleep. The musaf-man also went off-nusach too many times for my taste, while the Neila man seemed to think he was saying Maariv. Look. There is exactly one way to do Avos, one way to do Aleinu, and one way to do Neilah. If you're not going to do it that way, don't be shat'z.

I was less annoyed than usual at the self-absorbed people who sit with a Gemarah open, oblivious to the service going on around them. Perhaps, because this year I was one of them. 

The four maariv piyutim, as I say all the time, are perfect, and a chazan who debases them with a bubblegum tune should be dragged out of the building and curb stomped. (In my shul the chazan's selections were fine. In fact, the days's prize for "best performance by a chazan" goes to our maariv man for the job he did on "Solachti" Absolutely perfect. )

The Rabbi spoke after Kol Nidrei, and did not speak at all on Yom Kippur, save for a few minutes of pep-talking prior to Neilah.  (which is exactly as it should be.)

* For reasons I can't fathom, the Hasidic Jews, and those who wish to emulate them (also for reasons I can't fathom) have two, big sit-down meals on erev Yom Kippur. There's nothing wrong with this.
** Eating is not permitted until after Havdalah. If you goofed, and ate before a man made havdalah for you (Surprise ladies: Orthodox Judaism frowns on women making their own havdalah) you have to do the whole fast over again. (KIDDING!) (only about the last part) (the rest is true)

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