Pre-Pesach prep:Holy miscommunication,Moshe!
Siyum B'chorim
Our rabbi's been saying for years that he won't lead a Siyum B'chorim, not only because "it's not in my contract," but also because "you don't get a minyan anyway." So we've been faking it for years by putting together a non-traditional study session (one that does not involve the completion of a tractate of the Talmud) led by a layperson (namely, the chair of the Ritual Committee, also known as my husband, who's a first-born). Yesterday, at S'udah Shlishit after Mincha (Afternoon Service), we were discussing the siyum when the rabbi casually mentioned that you can't have a siyum without a minyan. And here we'd been under the impression, for roughly the last five years, that he simply couldn't be bothered studying a masachet of Talmud just so that he could celebrate its completion with 3-7 people, the usual weekday Shacharit (Morning Service) crowd. Funny that he never mentioned this before. To make a long story short, we've decided to take whoever shows up tomorrow morning to my "kaddish-minyan" synagogogue by taxi for the service and siyum.
Well-scrubbed
When we came home last night around midnight from dinner at our semi-local kosher Chinese restaurant, I asked my husband to stay up an extra hour and "burn out the oven and stove," since he could pray at the local synagogue in the morning, while I still have to travel to my "kaddish synagogue" to get a minyan so that I can say kaddish. He misunderstood completely, and stayed up until 4 AM scrubbing the oven and broiler with Easy Off, and scrubbing the stovetop, too, despite the fact that I'd paid a cleaning person to do that on Thursday! Oh my heavens! And here I thought he'd just turn the oven on broil and turn the burners up to max. and go work on his tax returns for an hour! I feel so bad that he stayed up an extra three hours for nothing. This is certainly the cleanest our oven, broiler and stove have ever been.
Our rabbi's been saying for years that he won't lead a Siyum B'chorim, not only because "it's not in my contract," but also because "you don't get a minyan anyway." So we've been faking it for years by putting together a non-traditional study session (one that does not involve the completion of a tractate of the Talmud) led by a layperson (namely, the chair of the Ritual Committee, also known as my husband, who's a first-born). Yesterday, at S'udah Shlishit after Mincha (Afternoon Service), we were discussing the siyum when the rabbi casually mentioned that you can't have a siyum without a minyan. And here we'd been under the impression, for roughly the last five years, that he simply couldn't be bothered studying a masachet of Talmud just so that he could celebrate its completion with 3-7 people, the usual weekday Shacharit (Morning Service) crowd. Funny that he never mentioned this before. To make a long story short, we've decided to take whoever shows up tomorrow morning to my "kaddish-minyan" synagogogue by taxi for the service and siyum.
Well-scrubbed
When we came home last night around midnight from dinner at our semi-local kosher Chinese restaurant, I asked my husband to stay up an extra hour and "burn out the oven and stove," since he could pray at the local synagogue in the morning, while I still have to travel to my "kaddish synagogue" to get a minyan so that I can say kaddish. He misunderstood completely, and stayed up until 4 AM scrubbing the oven and broiler with Easy Off, and scrubbing the stovetop, too, despite the fact that I'd paid a cleaning person to do that on Thursday! Oh my heavens! And here I thought he'd just turn the oven on broil and turn the burners up to max. and go work on his tax returns for an hour! I feel so bad that he stayed up an extra three hours for nothing. This is certainly the cleanest our oven, broiler and stove have ever been.
posted by Shira Salamone at 12:20 PM
2 Comments:
Your spouse puts me to shame.
Did you read the post on the first born's fast over at hirhurim this week? While I previously observe this, after reading the huge number of opinions and leniencies, I'm convinced there's no point in observing it anymore. It seems like its more of a quaint custom than an obligation.
Best wishes for a chag kasher v'sameach!
Don't worry, Steve, my husband's serving our mutual interests--the more manual labor he does for Ms. Formerly-Broken-Wrists (and/or the more often we pay for housecleaning), the more likely that I'll be able to keep typing and put off retiring from my secretarial position.
Thanks for the tip about that post on Hirhurim. For the benefit of my other readers, I'm posting the link here.
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