It is now 13:30 in Jerusalem and Rosh Hashanah begins in a just few hours. I can tell from my bedroom window that the city is preparing for the Holy Day now even more so than over the past month.
While I have not posted this before, there has been a growing awareness of the time of year that is palpable on the streets. The people have been even friendlier since the beginning of the month of Elul (This month on the Hebrew calendar, which is based on the lunar cycle. Rosh Hashanah begins on the 1st of Tishrei, which starts at sundown tonight.). They have also been a little more introspective due to the nature of the holiday and its significance in Jewish life.
Sitting here I can hear that the city has slowed down. There is only occasional road traffic down the main street here, and it has been diminishing all day. The sound of silence is starting to drape the city.
Even from here, a more secular part of the city, I can hear the sound of the Shofar as people practice for services this evening. I can also hear people singing snippets of some of the traditional melodies that I know, and also some that I do not. I can only imagine what the feeling is at the Western Wall today. I will try to get there but do not know if I will be able to due to my own travel schedule. (Baring any major issues, I WILL get there on Yom Kippur assuming that I will be here for that and not at a settlement.)
I am looking forward to services at the settlement with great anticipation of hearing new melodies, and hopefully some that I can join in with.
This promises to be a very special Rosh Hashanah indeed.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Day Before Erev Rosh Hashanah
Well, I did it AGAIN! I slept right through services Saturday morning. Didn’t get up until 11:40! I guess I needed it, but this is a habit I MUST NOT fall into. It would be a tough sell to be a cantor that misses services because he was asleep!
I decided not to go to Ulpan for the one day of review and not to take the test. As I am taking the next session off, I will have to take a placement test when I go back to Ulpan. I hope by then to have a more robust vocabulary through reviewing what I have learned and working with Hebrew-speaking friends.
That leaves me with the cantorial, my entire reason for being in Israel. I had another class yesterday (Monday) at which we reviewed what I have done so far. There is still a little work to do on it, and then we start into the presentational aspects.
At the same time, I am being taught some of the basics of music. We are working on major scales right now and I am being instructed on the keyboard. Some of this is VERY old information for me, as I used to play the accordion but that was some 45 years ago. In addition to this I am working on learning the intervals between all of the notes in order to make learning even faster.
All of this is positive. The faster I can learn the more likely that we will finish in the 1 year timeframe and not have to go another semester.
The High Holy Days are just around the corner. Rosh Hashanah starts tomorrow evening. This morning I went to the Ge’ula area of Jerusalem. This is an extremely orthodox section of town. I was told that the prayer books there were less expensive than where I had been going. I did manage to find the Art Scroll outlet and picked up both the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur books with interlinear translation. The books will do wonderfully for the holidays and the interlinear translations will help me on the cantorial side relative to accenting or subduing certain words or phrases. These books were each 10 Shekels less than where I had been buying as well as other stores in Ge’ula that I looked at.
I was expecting to go to the synagogue just up the street from here, but a friend invited me to go to the settlement where they live for Rosh Hashanah. This is the same settlement I was at for Shabbat right after I first arrived in Israel, and I am looking forward to experiencing my first Rosh Hashanah at such an observant and spiritually enhancing location.
Just in case I do not post again before the Haggim (holidays), I want to wish everyone a very sweet, peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year, 5771.
L'Shanah Tovah uMetukah
A Happy and Sweet New Year
B'shalom u’vrachah m’Yerushaliam
In peace and blessings from Jerusalem
I decided not to go to Ulpan for the one day of review and not to take the test. As I am taking the next session off, I will have to take a placement test when I go back to Ulpan. I hope by then to have a more robust vocabulary through reviewing what I have learned and working with Hebrew-speaking friends.
That leaves me with the cantorial, my entire reason for being in Israel. I had another class yesterday (Monday) at which we reviewed what I have done so far. There is still a little work to do on it, and then we start into the presentational aspects.
At the same time, I am being taught some of the basics of music. We are working on major scales right now and I am being instructed on the keyboard. Some of this is VERY old information for me, as I used to play the accordion but that was some 45 years ago. In addition to this I am working on learning the intervals between all of the notes in order to make learning even faster.
All of this is positive. The faster I can learn the more likely that we will finish in the 1 year timeframe and not have to go another semester.
The High Holy Days are just around the corner. Rosh Hashanah starts tomorrow evening. This morning I went to the Ge’ula area of Jerusalem. This is an extremely orthodox section of town. I was told that the prayer books there were less expensive than where I had been going. I did manage to find the Art Scroll outlet and picked up both the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur books with interlinear translation. The books will do wonderfully for the holidays and the interlinear translations will help me on the cantorial side relative to accenting or subduing certain words or phrases. These books were each 10 Shekels less than where I had been buying as well as other stores in Ge’ula that I looked at.
I was expecting to go to the synagogue just up the street from here, but a friend invited me to go to the settlement where they live for Rosh Hashanah. This is the same settlement I was at for Shabbat right after I first arrived in Israel, and I am looking forward to experiencing my first Rosh Hashanah at such an observant and spiritually enhancing location.
Just in case I do not post again before the Haggim (holidays), I want to wish everyone a very sweet, peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year, 5771.
L'Shanah Tovah uMetukah
A Happy and Sweet New Year
B'shalom u’vrachah m’Yerushaliam
In peace and blessings from Jerusalem
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