Sleepless after break-fast
We came home from a break-the-fast at a friend's house and fell into bed, thoroughly exhausted. . . only to be awakened at 11:30 PM by the Son-ster. "But it's Saturday night, and you're always up at this hour." True.
Roughly an hour later . . . "Who the . . . Oh, it must be my mother. Who else would call at this ridiculous hour?" There are some drawbacks to having relatives living in Jerusalem.
So here I am, wide awake at an even more ridiculous hour. Sigh.
Well, okay, might as well review YK:
The High Holiday cantor (see RH: A day at the opera, etc.) sang one prayer to the tune of "G-d Bless America, " another to "Bai Mir Bist du Schein" (which I can't even spell), another to "Mein Yiddishe Mama." "Ki Hinei KaChomer" was sung to the tune of "This Land is Your Land." The pièce de résistance for Yom Kippur, though, was a rerun of "La Donna é Mobile" ("Woman is Fickle "), this time used as the tune for "Adam Y'sodo." I give up.
Out of curiosity, I timed the Musaf Amidah: From the beginning of the silent Amidah until the beginning of "U-N'taneh Tokef" took approximately 35 minutes. Is that typical? Mark/PT doesn't seem to think so (see the comments).
I also figured out that the best way to be sure to finish the silent Amidah in time for "U-N'taneh Tokef" was to watch my husband. Since he's the chair of the Ritual Committee, and, therefore, in accordance with our synagogue's minhag/custom, sits next to the rabbi, the rabbi and cantor do him the courtesy of waiting at least until he's finished the silent Amidah before starting the Chazarat Hashatz/Reader's Repetition. So when I see him take the traditional three steps back at the end of the silent Amidah, I switch to English immediately. Works every time. :)
Roughly an hour later . . . "Who the . . . Oh, it must be my mother. Who else would call at this ridiculous hour?" There are some drawbacks to having relatives living in Jerusalem.
So here I am, wide awake at an even more ridiculous hour. Sigh.
Well, okay, might as well review YK:
The High Holiday cantor (see RH: A day at the opera, etc.) sang one prayer to the tune of "G-d Bless America, " another to "Bai Mir Bist du Schein" (which I can't even spell), another to "Mein Yiddishe Mama." "Ki Hinei KaChomer" was sung to the tune of "This Land is Your Land." The pièce de résistance for Yom Kippur, though, was a rerun of "La Donna é Mobile" ("Woman is Fickle "), this time used as the tune for "Adam Y'sodo." I give up.
Out of curiosity, I timed the Musaf Amidah: From the beginning of the silent Amidah until the beginning of "U-N'taneh Tokef" took approximately 35 minutes. Is that typical? Mark/PT doesn't seem to think so (see the comments).
I also figured out that the best way to be sure to finish the silent Amidah in time for "U-N'taneh Tokef" was to watch my husband. Since he's the chair of the Ritual Committee, and, therefore, in accordance with our synagogue's minhag/custom, sits next to the rabbi, the rabbi and cantor do him the courtesy of waiting at least until he's finished the silent Amidah before starting the Chazarat Hashatz/Reader's Repetition. So when I see him take the traditional three steps back at the end of the silent Amidah, I switch to English immediately. Works every time. :)
posted by Shira Salamone at 3:18 AM
3 Comments:
Wow...35 minutes from the start of the silent Amidah until U'Netaneh Tokef?! That's not enough time to daven with kavanna at all, so I can totally understand your frustration. Thank G-d, where I davened (both on Rosh Hashana and on Yom Kippur, two different places) they gave us plenty of time to daven properly, and the melodies they used for the various tefillot were a lot more appropriate choices. Actually, where I davened on Yom Kippur they used a lot of tunes from zemirot, which was nice because we didn't get a "regular" Shabbat this week.
"That's not enough time to daven with kavanna at all . . ." It may be enough time for Mark/PT, but it certainly isn't enough time for me. I told my husband, "Thank G-d you don't davven any faster, 'cause if you did, they'd start the Repetition 10 minutes sooner." Sadly, it seems to me that the speed of the services on the Yamin Noraim/High Holidays is geared more to those who *don't* care about davvening/praying than to those who *do.*
My husband reminds me that, for some people, davvening too slowly can be a kavvanah/focus-wrecker, as Mark/PT has said previously. So let me give the rabbi the benefit of the doubt ("dan l'kaf z'chut"): Though he, himself, is a speed-davvener, he may be trying find a middle ground behind the tortoise and the hare.
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