#anyway Shabbat shalom

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

As promised, I will explain the Hallelujah thing.

So the word is actually a composite word, in that it is made up of "hallel" and "Yah." The latter is one of the better known names of G-d (and for this reason some traditional Jews won't say the whole word of hallelujah outside of prayer or religious study) but the former deserves a little more investigation. A simple translation of it is "praise" or "glory," and so most translations of this into English are fairly faithful to the Hebrew.

However, I think knowing the context adds some shades of meaning to it that are important. Hallel in Hebrew is spelled הלל (hay-lamed-lamed) or (effectively) H-L-L. Written Hebrew doesn't include vowels (unless they are added in using the pointed Hebrew system) so the word written out traditionally would read: HLL, despite (obviously) being pronounced with the vowel sounds. It is for this reason that I'm not terribly a fan of the linguistic drift of "alleluia," because it drops the hay/ה sound at the beginning, which is very important to the word being legible and diminishes the name of G-d at the end by denoting it using a common suffix. It also means that the people saying it almost certainly do not know the origin of the word and the root word Hallel.

In any event, it's worth noting that there are a number of words in Hebrew that refer to praise (especially in a religious context) but this one specifically refers to the Psalms (Tehillim), which share a root in Hebrew.

To say Hallel is to say Tehillim - specifically Psalms 113 - 118. These are typically sung with a lot of ruach (spirit) and joyful melodies, and are reserved for happy occasions. This is one reason why I find the fact that we daven Hallel for Av, the saddest month on the Jewish calendar, when we intentionally lessen our joy upon starting it, so compelling and so Jewish. (More on that here.)

Hallel isn't just praise. It's Psalms sung from the heart, from a place of joy and resilience.

[crplpunkklavier]

when you punch down the dough and it sighs in relief. i know babygirl

[lesfruitsdores]

Happy to announce I've succeeded in cutting back on coke zero. I've now started drinking disgusting citric soda

[ruraljew]

attended the most eclectic shabbat service with about ten people, all over 50. shout out to the one aggressively bostonian guy talking about not wanting to do tashlich in our lake here bc its nasty

[supervor]

Forgot to take a picture of the first night, but here's night 2!

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Okay now that antisemites have decided to crawl onto my post, it really just solidifies to me that some people don't give a fuck what they believe so long as it hurts jews. I guess I'm glad I got that lesson hammered into me in a space that is "safer" than real life, but it never ceases to amaze me regardless

[naughtyjewishgirl]

Rofling

[4chanfetishist]

me when the rabbi during kabbalat shabbat services says to turn to the people beside u and wish them shabbat shalom and i turn to see either

jfk or charles leclerc

[beaniegender]

Just had an incredibly Okay So This Is Life In My Twenties night like going to a party and then ditching the afterparty so I could end the night at a dive with my roommate so we can bitch about our other roommate (a dear friend) and then get in at 3am and like. Hug in the bathroom while we brush our teeth. Like yeah this IS actually the romanticized young adulthood drama i dreamed of i guess

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Had a dream the other night that I was a chareidi cis man studying at the beis midrash and had a wife and biological children. It felt so real and embodied in a way that normally my dreams don't when I'm not in my actual body.

[robindaydream]

I really enjoy going to temple and it always puts me in a good mood but the problem is I’m autistic and the concept of “you can only engage in your new interest once a week” is foreign to me so I spend half the week like “only X more days until shabbat :)c” like some kind of nerd.

[ljbrary]

uhhh so basically i won an undergraduate award in may at school that came with a cash prize from an outside organization and i had to fill out all these forms and stuff so they could send me the prize money which was $100, which is great! cool! wasn’t expecting that!

but i was just checking my bank account bc i thought my card got stolen (spoiler alert: it didn’t and im just an idiot who forgot to cancel a subscription to something) and saw a deposit from the organization and it turns out they actually sent me 1 singular cent. so. um. easy mistake math is hard they’ll get ‘em next time

[kelev9]

Walked thru the park on my way home from synagogue and there was a malinois/malinois mix on one side of the park and a cane corso on the other truly felt like I was in dog breed heaven

[emmafallsinlove]

listening to ttpd + drinking red wine is so good i recommend

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

Being on Jumblr is wild

I just saw a 2 pages long poetic post about loving Shakshuka

Followed by 5 different posts from 5 different users replying to antisemitic anons

Anyways Shabbat Shalom guys🫶

[jewishconvertthings]

Something I feel like I don't frequently see covered as a "basic thing to learn as a conversion student" is bentching after meals, particularly the out-loud singing elaborate sort of bentching that occurs in Jewish groups on Shabbat.

The first time I ever experienced this it was quite a surprise, to say the least.

This was probably circa fall 2016 at my first (blended Reform and traditional egalitarian) shul, and I'd just survived a full traditional egalitarian service and the social awkwardness that was the kiddush afterwards for me at a time when I was so painfully shy.

I thought I was safe. That I was in the clear. That I would be leaving in a few minutes to take deep breaths in my car and start the twenty minute drive home.

Oh no, chaverim. I was not.

Alexis (*not her real name) says in a mild-mannered tone, "oh hey, we should probably bentch - we haven't done that in a while," and there is murmured agreement.

Suddenly, a minimum of six more people, but probably more like a full minyan surround the table I'm sitting at (no escape now lads) and start passing out small paperback and careworn siddurim I would later learn are called bentchers. Everyone turns to a page in the middle of the book that they obviously know already and immediately burst into robust, hearty singing, complete with several people banging on the table to keep time.

(This all happening around me. Surround sound. I was as shy and quiet as a church mouse at that particular moment in my life. I must have looked hilariously bewildered.)

This whole situation takes a solid 10 - 15 minutes, and every time I thought they had reached the conclusion, there was another paragraph. Finally, it was done at which point the books are all kissed, hurriedly scooped up, and squirreled away to wherever they'd materialized from in the first place, and everyone abruptly dispersed. If you've ever wondered what it feels like to be a character living in a musical who doesn't know they're living in a musical, wonder no more.

Anyway.... as amusing as that all is in hindsight, if you would prefer to *not* be caught quite so off-guard, here is a wonderful resource for learning to bentch:

The rest of the album is great too and covers a lot of these ubiquitous parts of Shabbat davening outside of strictly services like kiddush in the evening and morning, eishet chayil, shalom aleichem, havdala, etc., and the whole thing can be found on YouTube.

Here are another couple bentching resources: