mat@linus.UUCP (Michael A. Turniansky) (02/28/84)
<whoops, almost forgot...>
Adar 25, 5744
OK, thanks for all of the leads to, and offers of conversion
programs. One person (ulysses!rmb, or some such?) has sent me a program that
converts from solar -> Hebrew, which is fine for me. I also wrote an
adjunct program to give you today's Hebrew date. If anybody wants these...
Glad to see that there are people out there who'll program anything. It
does strange things around Tishri 1, year 0, 'though. (It's to be expected,
time was sort of in flux back then :-)).
On to a new topic. Since we're coming up on Purim, I thought it
appropriate to discuss Simchat Torah. (Don't try to understand that
reasoning, just accept it.) My question is, what is your traditional
celebrations like in your congregation for Simchat Torah? For example,
in my home Shul (Conservative, by the way), humor abounds in the service.
Usually, it is led by a "guest hazzan (cantor)". In the past, this has
been an alien (Resh 2, Daled 2), a mexican (Si), a spy, and once even a
surprise visit by "Pope John Paul II". Strange happenings include the
last paragraph of the Sh'ma (dealing with fringes on garments) sung to
the theme from the Daniel Boone TV show ("the man who made fringes popular
in America"), a breeze being blown up by waving Tallitim (prayer shawls), and
water thrown at the cantor for the line "Who causes the wind to blow and the
rain to fall," and an excellent humorous discussion on talmud by the "Bozo
rebbe, brother of the Belzer rebbe." (no offense intended to the Belzer
rebbe or his followers). I have the text of this (it's quite long) if
anyone's interested.
And so forth. So what do YOU do? Post answers to the net please.
"Cursed be Mordechai, and blessed be Haman, or something like that (*hic*)"
--Mike Turniansky (linus!mat UUCP)
(mat@Mitre-Bedford ARPA)rib@pyuxdd.UUCP (RI Block) (03/02/84)
While there is room for a *bit* of revelry on Simchat Torah, it usually gets out of hand quickly unless there are guidelines hence the admonition: "Don't confuse S"T with Purim".