Does your shul have kiddush after services Shabbat morning? If so, is there any way to push that towards more lunch-like offerings sometimes, with some kind of programming to follow?
We have light food after services -- usually challah and cookies or pastries, sometimes fruit or nuts. Members of the minyan take turns bringing it. We don't currently have access to set things up in advance (e.g. crock pot or hot plate on a timer, fridge space for cold cuts, etc). When there is a bar mitzvah, the kitchen is often in use to support that. Someday maybe my rabbi will get his wish of a combined service instead of a two minyanim, but that's not currently the case. I don't think they even have a kiddush for everyone who shows up at the bar-mitzvah service; the family will often have a private luncheon, but if I randomly showed up at that service, I don't know if I'd be intruding on what happens after. (Insert tangent about privatization of b'nei mitzvah in liberal Judaism here
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Last week there was a bar mitzvah at my parents' Conservative shul. There were 2 buffets, one with desserts and drinks, one with real food. The real food included bagels, cream cheese, tuna, egg salad, green salad, Israeli couscous with stuff in it, an eggplant salad, and some crudites and dips. Not hugely fancy, but solid.
The local Conservative shul to me tends to have a lunch kiddush every week, with tuna and egg salad to put on bread, also hummus and probably some other things too.
I've been places that had hot cholent and/or kugel, but it's not usual for the places I tend to go.
I think of the difference between regular and lunch kiddush having to do with seating (rather than standing) and having motzi, rather than just mezonot, plus adequate proteins/veg.
As I learned it, bechirah (free will) is a word used to describe moral choices. It's not about "will I have chocolate or vanilla ice cream on my cone today" but about "will I do [something] even though I know/sense/fear that I shouldn't". (And by extension, the latter is supposed to involve learning Torah so that you have a better sense of how to navigate tricky matters, like whether [and when] you have a duty to reveal damaging personal information about someone in a shidduch situation.)
Beyond that, my personal take is that G-d is outside of time and sees all of it -- everything that happens and everything that could happen and the possible consequences of the latter, all the way down the line -- at once. And that's easier for me to write than to really wrap my head around. To riff on the Rambam, I suppose that G-d experiences (if one can even use that word) time in a way that is beyond our ability to imagine properly.
Moral choices: interesting; I hadn't heard that interpretation before. It makes a lot of sense.
I believe that God knows all possibilities, but which ones will play out exactly how... well, an omniscient God certainly can know that, but I don't think that's what occupies God's attention, y'know? What I'm going to cook for dinner tomorrow just doesn't matter most of the time. Or maybe it's something like the infinite-worlds theory; God knows how all of the decision points through all time would play out, but this knowledge has little practical application.
Maybe God knows that all of the decision points through time all play out, as the world keeps splitting into finer and finer hairs of parallel universes.
long summer shabbat afternoonschaos_wranglerApril 19 2010, 02:41:07 UTC
One local (Orthodox) shul tries to have a seudah shelishit every week during the summer to take advantage of all the "extra" time, often but not always with a guest speaker of some sort. Food isn't very fancy: usually challah rolls, tuna salad, egg salad, some cut veggies, and pretzels/chips. I don't know how well this would work in a Reform setting, but if enough people want social Shabbat/Jewish-related time then it might be worth suggesting at least as an occasional thing.
Re: long summer shabbat afternoonscellioApril 20 2010, 03:22:26 UTC
That's a good idea. Thanks. (And it reminds me that the friendly Orthodox shul two blocks away usually has some sort of learning adjacent to mincha; dunno if there's also seudah shelishit, but maybe. I should check that out.)
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Does your shul have kiddush after services Shabbat morning? If so, is there any way to push that towards more lunch-like offerings sometimes, with some kind of programming to follow?
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The local Conservative shul to me tends to have a lunch kiddush every week, with tuna and egg salad to put on bread, also hummus and probably some other things too.
I've been places that had hot cholent and/or kugel, but it's not usual for the places I tend to go.
I think of the difference between regular and lunch kiddush having to do with seating (rather than standing) and having motzi, rather than just mezonot, plus adequate proteins/veg.
Reply
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As I learned it, bechirah (free will) is a word used to describe moral choices. It's not about "will I have chocolate or vanilla ice cream on my cone today" but about "will I do [something] even though I know/sense/fear that I shouldn't". (And by extension, the latter is supposed to involve learning Torah so that you have a better sense of how to navigate tricky matters, like whether [and when] you have a duty to reveal damaging personal information about someone in a shidduch situation.)
Beyond that, my personal take is that G-d is outside of time and sees all of it -- everything that happens and everything that could happen and the possible consequences of the latter, all the way down the line -- at once. And that's easier for me to write than to really wrap my head around. To riff on the Rambam, I suppose that G-d experiences (if one can even use that word) time in a way that is beyond our ability to imagine properly.
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I believe that God knows all possibilities, but which ones will play out exactly how... well, an omniscient God certainly can know that, but I don't think that's what occupies God's attention, y'know? What I'm going to cook for dinner tomorrow just doesn't matter most of the time. Or maybe it's something like the infinite-worlds theory; God knows how all of the decision points through all time would play out, but this knowledge has little practical application.
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