Some things are not part of the formal Jewish learning process. I understand how to behave at a shiva house (house of mourning), and I've puzzeled out some of the rest by observation, but I'm curious: what typically happens with food? There are a couple facets to this (and I am blessed to not have first-hand knowledge yet ( Read more... )

My congregation has an evening service on Thursdays. (Long story.) Usually one of the rabbis leads it; if neither is available, usually I get a phone call. Tonight there was no rabbi and no phone call (something must have come up), so at five minutes past the start time the consensus was that I should lead it ( Read more... )

I led a shiva minyan tonight. Two liturgically-competent Conservative ( Read more... )

Thursday night I led the shiva minyan for Steve. I hadn't led one ( Read more... )

Shabbat afternoon I got a phone call from my rabbi. Could I lead a shiva minyan that night at 7? 7 is rather before sundown these days, so I asked if it was in Squirrel Hill. No, he said, Oakland.
I hesitated. He heard the pause. I said I try not to drive on Shabbat ( Read more... )

I led a shiva minyan tonight for the family of a congregant. He was 90 years old and his wife and two siblings (all comparable in age, or so I understand) are still alive. I know people are living longer than ever now, but that's still pretty impressive.
I think I've finally, without really thinking about it, derived the ( Read more... )

Today was a full day. We actually had a real break (almost 30
minutes); during that time I tried to post Monday's entry but saw no
evidence that it took. I guess I'll find out when I connect to attempt to
post this. I'm sorry for sending large bursts of stuff out all at once.

The campus store and the library have very limited hours during the ( Read more... )

Good heavens. I can have 50 userpics now?!
I led a shiva minyan tonight (my second time). Gauging ( Read more... )

Welcome to siderea, aka Tibicen -- SCA person, early-music geek, and interesting writer. Apparently the Boston crowd sucked her into LJ. :-)
Last night my rabbi gave a class/discussion on mourning ( Read more... )

Today while we were studying we ended up talking about ( Read more... )