When you live in the frum community it always seems like there’s this great partisan divide between us and them. Us being the frum and them being the not frum, but what’s even more interesting to me is the divide…
Tag: shul
Do you actually know the people in your community?
I heard recently that one of the members of my shul, who I’ve known for years is a heavily into gardening, a bit of a fascination of my own. Then I learned that another fellow is into modifying trucks and…
Women are starting to come to shul during the week
I always feared this day would come, yet somehow I hoped it wouldn’t happen in my lifetime. We all know that a very small amount of women want to violate the shulchan aruch and hilchos tznius to do a mitzvah…
Get out of your comfort zone
There’s a certain comfort I get from being uncomfortable when I walk into shul on shabbos morning in the middle of laining, the rabbi is sitting up front, the entire shul can see me go to the other end to…
Makom Kavua Wars
For the second shabbos in a row my seat in shul was taken, in fact it’s been taken all week and I kind of want to walk up to the guy who’s decided to commandeer it and ask him when…
I miss the Cholent Moshpit
There are certian things I miss about the east coast, shoving matches at kiddush is one of them. In my shul, everyone waits for the Rabbi or whoever sponsored kiddush to make kiddush, I hate that. People are way too…
Am I really being honored
I got an email from the shul last night, informing me that I was to be honored with gelilah for the second Torah on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Being the cynical conspiracy theorist that I am, I immediately…
What we can learn from shabbos davening times
I have to be honest, I never gave the times people start shabbos morning davening much thought until I realized that the whole world didn’t just start at 9am. In general the orthodox Jewish way is to start shachris at…
10 ways to know you’re in a Modern Orthodox shul without going into shul
Anyone with a kindergarten level of Jewish education can tell they’re in a modern orthodox shul, the mechitza, the seating style, the siddurim, the flags, there are literally dozens of ways to tell. However, being able to tell you’re in…
I used to just go to shul just for the girls
Being married has its advantages, laundry more than once a month, home cooked meals, and not having to get tested for STD’s every time my crotch starts feeling the fire, but one of the biggest disadvantages is that shul is…
Shalosh Seuda doesn’t have to suck
The shaloshudos (the third meal, aka seudat shlishit for the Hebrew inclined) of my youth was finely a pretty gross affair, ice cream scoops of mass produced, aged, tuna fish and egg salad. Dry egg challah rolls that were rarely…
I shushed someone in shul yesterday
My theory on people shushing others for talking in shul is that they’re just jealous of those talking and having a grand old time in the back row. If they had true kavannah they wouldn’t notice anyone talking, they say…
RE: I hope you aren’t jerks when I have to say kaddish
I was in shul in Berkeley once and there was a yeshivish visitor who got very unnerved that a woman was saying kaddish, the Rabbi coolly quieted him down and that’s when I learned that women generally don’t say kaddish.…
I hope you aren’t jerks when I have to say Kaddish
Guest Post by Charles Zucker Fortunately, I’ve never had to say Kaddish for anyone. I hope, when that day comes, that the rest of the congregants aren’t jerks about it. You know, like they are now. This happens during the…
The Tyranny of Hagbah
The Tyranny of Hagbah Guest Post by Charles Zucker No bully has ever kicked sand in my face. And though I was never a 97-pound weakling I am now a slightly doughy, 200ish pound weakling. I only have two fears:…
10 evil things that some shuls do
Evil is a word reserved for things I truly dislike, things I think that will bring klal yisroel down if we continue to practice. Evil is reserved for sex abusers, jarred gefilte fish, and Niturei Karta parades. I guess hate…
Money Making Faux-Mishloash Manot
The president of my shul called me this evening, furious that I did not participate in the shul’s mishloach manot program. “Reb Telz” he says “Why are you not on the list? We are packing the bags, reviewing the mailed-in…
Our solution to the unfriendly shul problem.
Heshy restarted his blog after a short break with a simple question — should shuls be friendly places? The board of my shul got together last year to discuss this very issue. We sent out a survey to the membership…
Should shuls be welcoming places?
I used to judge a shuls friendliness factor purely based on the amount of meal invites I received during davening. I used to come on in take a seat and literally wait for people to come up to me to…
Yeshivish vs. Modern Orthodox Rosh Hashanah davening
By most people’s standards I belong to modern orthodoxy, some may throw me into post denominational neo-chossid type of groups, but I just can’t seem to stand Modern Orthodox High Holiday services. Thank God the chazzan had a yeshivish nusach…
Why on earth does shabbos davening take 3 hours?
People were literally freaking out yesterday, you see, the regular old Modern Orthodox shul in San Francisco ended shabbos morning davening at 11:15 instead of the MO regulation time of 12pm. It seemed that the opinion swayed toward “what’s the…
I found some yeshivish people in the Bay Area
Upon finishing shemona esrei I saw something that I haven’t seen in a long time. There was a fellow with his hat pushed back high in his head, doing the full on fist pump shuckel. It appeared that he was…
If I ran a shul.
If I ran a shul: 1. There would be an assistant rabbi. I think every shul should have an assistant rabbi. First of all, you need succession planning. People die. Second of all, we all want perfect rabbis, and are…
Ways to tell you’re in a really frum shul
I walked into the shul in San Jose the other day and felt inclined to wash off all the ruach ra’ah and tumah of the internet from my hands before davening. Suddenly I started wondering about how you can calculate…
Does mixed seating at shul really hurt your kavannah?
Originally posted on Dov Bear By Chometz Ben Yayin No. I don’t pray to a cross, and no, I’m not an angry davener. Let me explain. I live on the upper west side. I have for more than ten years.…