Not only have we just begun a new school year, but the Jewish year 5765 started 10 days ago, which translates into much missed school for Naomi and a 25 hour fast today. Funnnnn. The missing school aspect of Jewish festivals is definitely the con, due to the large amounts of catching up of work that needs to be done. It wouldn't be so bad, had I not chosen to go on a Spectroscopy day at UCL on Tuesday as well, and the fact that many classmates conveniently forgot to bring in their notes from the days when I was away, despite having 'phoned them the night before to remind them to bring them in. Ah well. I think I have notes to try to digest from all my missed lessons now. I even understand some of them. Now that's something.
Today was good. I even managed to refrain from reading anything secular for 25 hours this year, which is quite an achievement, I thought. I stuck to reading R' Aryeh Kaplan (z"l) last night before I went to sleep, and another of his books during the services, when admittedly I should have been praying, but there's so much, I mean, it's all day. I arrived at shul this morning at 9.30, and didn't leave the building 'til 8pm. And I didn't eat or drink. And anyway, reading some Aryeh Kaplan is better than reading say, 'Lord of the Rings', when you are supposed to be focusing on religion and getting close to God and stuff all day. Especially when the book is about finding God, and why He created the world, and why everything we do is for Him.
I went to the Rabbi's question and answer session during the break (our services don't quite take all day, so we had about an hour's break. It was supposed to be longer, but the services overran a bit) and there was the annual "why don't we wear leather shoes on Yom Kippur? And can we wear leather on any other part of our body?" question, along with a few other questions, including one about "Shabbat lifts" whereby there are some hotels (or high rise buildings) which have lifts that either (i) go up and down on their own, stopping at every floor, or (ii) have someone inside pressing the button, and is it okay to use them? (For anyone who doesn't know, we are not supposed to use electricity on Shabbat, and that includes pressing the button in the lift.)
Hmm. Well, I'm tired, so I'm heading bed-wards. Night. x
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2 comments:
Don't leave us in suspense - are you allowed to use either lift (i) or lift (ii)?
AG.
LOL. *is in hysterics* :D
I think the answer was that lift (i) was better than lift (ii), but by entering lift (i) you are still putting an extra load on the lift, making it use more power, so more electricity (don't mock my physics, I think that is right), blah blah blah, but in some circumstances it is okay to use it. Or something like that.
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