Hoshanna Rabba

A definite feel of the end of the holiday period comes over me with Hoshanna Rabba. On the one hand it takes us back to the beginning, to Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur, but it also marks the end of Sukkot and with it, going back to work and waiting for winter. Bitter sweet. Only the tedium of Simchat Torah to go.

Hag Sameah to all my loyal readers.

Gillog

Singing and Davening

Just returned from shul after extensive service. Much singing and extended lulav shaking. Is all this singing in Hol Hamoed appropriate. As one of my fellow congregants suggested it is time to put the Hol back into Hol Hamoed. The notion that community singing in itself is a marker of spiritual intensity seems at least questionable. Singing, like anything else, is susceptible to becoming routine and done just because it is done. Saving it for when it is really called for is a way of avoiding this problem. The spiritual potential of prayer properly conducted according to traditional nusach, with respect for the words, recited with dignity and conviction has come to be undervalued under the tide of Carlebachism that has overtaken us.