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From Mage game to Sabbath
Nov. 20th, 2004 01:59 pmGood game last night. I got to eat sushi, which is always fun, and my character got to call up ghosts. She botched once and ended up getting chased around by an irate leprachaun; that was not, of course, fun for her, but it was very humorous.
This morning I went to Beth Zion-Beth Israel for the Torah service. I couldn't take notes while it was going on (I didn't get to ask the rabbi beforehand, and I'm sure he would have said no anyway), but I was able to remember most of the important stuff and write it down later. It's a good thing I spoke to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ironroot's sister about how a traditional service goes, because this time I knew what to look for, and this was a very traditional Torah service. They read the whole parsha. With regards to gender equality, I am glad to say, the synagogue was quite un-traditional. Three of the people who came up for aliyot were women and one of the ba'al korei ("master of calling [out the Torah]") was a woman. I spoke to her a bit later. She and her husband had both read during the ceremony and were interested in my thesis, and welcomed me to make an interview appointment with them.
I also spoke to the senior rabbi, who didn't mind that I'd set off the security alarm by accident on my last visit (apparently it happens a lot, and someone did it just a week ago). He also said I should call him during the week to set up an interview and figure out who to talk to. I spoke to the cantor, of course, who was my first contact there.
I also mistook someone who attended forironroot's sister, which was stupid of me: after all, she'd said she wouldn't be in that weekend, and on close inspection the woman didn't really look like her (although from afar she did). I didn't realize my mistake until we met again after the service. And in between I'd been sitting next to her occasionally asking her what was going on. Luckily she didn't mind - very nice person - and thought my project was interesting. She's sort of new to this herself because, though she has been studying Hebrew for some time, she was not born Jewish and has only recently converted, although she's been going to the synagogue for a while. She was also going back to Bryn Mawr (she lives around here) so we took the train together and we had an informal interview that I found very useful.
The profs are right, thesis research never goes quite the way you planned, but the unexpected stuff can be good.
This morning I went to Beth Zion-Beth Israel for the Torah service. I couldn't take notes while it was going on (I didn't get to ask the rabbi beforehand, and I'm sure he would have said no anyway), but I was able to remember most of the important stuff and write it down later. It's a good thing I spoke to
ironroot's sister about how a traditional service goes, because this time I knew what to look for, and this was a very traditional Torah service. They read the whole parsha. With regards to gender equality, I am glad to say, the synagogue was quite un-traditional. Three of the people who came up for aliyot were women and one of the ba'al korei ("master of calling [out the Torah]") was a woman. I spoke to her a bit later. She and her husband had both read during the ceremony and were interested in my thesis, and welcomed me to make an interview appointment with them.I also spoke to the senior rabbi, who didn't mind that I'd set off the security alarm by accident on my last visit (apparently it happens a lot, and someone did it just a week ago). He also said I should call him during the week to set up an interview and figure out who to talk to. I spoke to the cantor, of course, who was my first contact there.
I also mistook someone who attended for
ironroot's sister, which was stupid of me: after all, she'd said she wouldn't be in that weekend, and on close inspection the woman didn't really look like her (although from afar she did). I didn't realize my mistake until we met again after the service. And in between I'd been sitting next to her occasionally asking her what was going on. Luckily she didn't mind - very nice person - and thought my project was interesting. She's sort of new to this herself because, though she has been studying Hebrew for some time, she was not born Jewish and has only recently converted, although she's been going to the synagogue for a while. She was also going back to Bryn Mawr (she lives around here) so we took the train together and we had an informal interview that I found very useful.The profs are right, thesis research never goes quite the way you planned, but the unexpected stuff can be good.
