Shabbat July 9, 2011

We split up for Shabbat morning services. The boys went to the Pinsker shul (downstairs), and the girls serviced their need to sleep and stayed home. I went around the corner to Shira Hadasha, an orthodox, feminist congregation. The shul is set up with men and one side and women on the other, and a sheer curtain mechitza separating the two sides. The mechitza is divided into sections, and the sections can be pulled open (like during the d’var torah, which was given by a woman, the mechitzah was pulled open in the front sections so everyone could see.) I arrived during shachrit, which was my first clue that the davening would be slow. It was really slow. Lots of beautiful singing but really slow. So slow I had to leave before mussaf to get to lunch on time. But it was a really different and interesting experience to participate in a service in which a woman led the torah service, and both women and men had aliyot and layned.
After I left the shul, I picked up the kids and we walked over to Faye and Earl Newman’s apartment for lunch with the Newmans, with Rachel and Michael and their kids, and with Michael’s parents. It was very hot. But lunch was really fun. The ruckus of the kids was considerable, but we enjoyed being together. Though Eitan did not enjoy that the entire meal was fish, some of them whole sardines, he kept averting his eyes and saying, “mom, there are 4 whole fish on the table!”. But he survived. After lunch the kids played cards, and then the boys went to the park and the girls played in Rachel and Michael’s apartment next door, and then the kids all came back and it was so loud that Faye and I went to the park to get some quiet and sit in the shade. At the park we saw Tehilla and Ori Teperberg, who had taken the bus and come into town to spend Shabbat with Uriah’s dad, Dani, and his wife Dorit! So we brought them back to the Newman’s apartment, where Ori and Ilana reunited and Mira joined the gang, and Noah and Tehilla had a chance to chat and get Tehilla caught up on all her Epstein classmates. Faye and Earl had been invited to the Teperberg’s for seudah shlishit, and the Oberlanders and Mira tagged along. Dani and Dorit were so welcoming and warm, as was Uriah’s brother and grandmother. The kids had a blast outside (it had started to cool off) and the teens and adults enjoyed chatting. Shabbat was over so quickly, it was a wonderful day, full of friends old and new…