Spurious Sins
Sep. 21st, 2007 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanarillElona. An eighty-year-old woman who survived the Holocaust and who, because she does not drive at night, we occassionally drive to Shul when there are night services.
The problem: Shes an eighty-year-old woman who lives alone and is half deaf, so if she's in the car with us she is talking, probably repeating something she's said eight times already, and we have to Shout to get her to hear us. It means I can have entire conversations with my brother outside of her hearing range, but it also means that my family gets sick of me flexing my fingers and saying, loud enough for a normal people to hear, "Shut up."
I mean, yes, I'm supposed to be nice to her because her life has sucked, above and beyond the Holocaust, but really. Up the shut fuck, as Yoda would say.
Anyway, got to Shul at about sevenish, and Kol Nidre had already started. IT can be a bit confusing because Kol Nidre (cole nid-ray) is the name of the specific prayer as well as the entire service that begins Yom Kippur. I was not praying for Kol Nidre, but perhaps I should have, because Kol Nidre is basically me saying I'm human and fallible and therefore any promises I make in the next year are null and void to begin.
However, I was not. Instead I was having a conversation with my used-to-be-best friend and another of my Shul friends about the fact that all three of us need to get laid. Which we do. And then we discussed the various attractions of slappable asses (>.o), bitable asses (o.<), and boobs. I still do not get The Boob Thing.
Then I went and actually got some prayer done. The sins listed are things like "We lie, cheat, murder, steal, are prejudiced, are xenophobic," etc. and these are good sins to list. But I can't approve of the "We have impure thoughts" because I honestly don't think having impure thoughts is a problem, it's acting on them in ways that hurt other people. Same with the list of sins that basically go, "I coveted another man's possession." I mean, yeah, okay. But liking something someone else owns is not the same as stealing it.
The other thing I hate about Yom Kippur, aside from the fasting, is the way that every. Single. Prayer. Is said like a dirge. In some hymns, it get to the point where one word is repeated fourteen times (and yes, I have counted). I'm sorry, and I understand that this is supposed to be a solemn occasion, but what is the point of saying everything like a funeral dirge if a. better tunes exist or b. you could just say the damn prayers, and be done with the whole service in less than half the time?
So. Fasting now. I think it says something that my post for tomorrow includes porn. I don't know what, but it does. Possibly that I feel that being a good person is far, far more important that being a good Jew.
The problem: Shes an eighty-year-old woman who lives alone and is half deaf, so if she's in the car with us she is talking, probably repeating something she's said eight times already, and we have to Shout to get her to hear us. It means I can have entire conversations with my brother outside of her hearing range, but it also means that my family gets sick of me flexing my fingers and saying, loud enough for a normal people to hear, "Shut up."
I mean, yes, I'm supposed to be nice to her because her life has sucked, above and beyond the Holocaust, but really. Up the shut fuck, as Yoda would say.
Anyway, got to Shul at about sevenish, and Kol Nidre had already started. IT can be a bit confusing because Kol Nidre (cole nid-ray) is the name of the specific prayer as well as the entire service that begins Yom Kippur. I was not praying for Kol Nidre, but perhaps I should have, because Kol Nidre is basically me saying I'm human and fallible and therefore any promises I make in the next year are null and void to begin.
However, I was not. Instead I was having a conversation with my used-to-be-best friend and another of my Shul friends about the fact that all three of us need to get laid. Which we do. And then we discussed the various attractions of slappable asses (>.o), bitable asses (o.<), and boobs. I still do not get The Boob Thing.
Then I went and actually got some prayer done. The sins listed are things like "We lie, cheat, murder, steal, are prejudiced, are xenophobic," etc. and these are good sins to list. But I can't approve of the "We have impure thoughts" because I honestly don't think having impure thoughts is a problem, it's acting on them in ways that hurt other people. Same with the list of sins that basically go, "I coveted another man's possession." I mean, yeah, okay. But liking something someone else owns is not the same as stealing it.
The other thing I hate about Yom Kippur, aside from the fasting, is the way that every. Single. Prayer. Is said like a dirge. In some hymns, it get to the point where one word is repeated fourteen times (and yes, I have counted). I'm sorry, and I understand that this is supposed to be a solemn occasion, but what is the point of saying everything like a funeral dirge if a. better tunes exist or b. you could just say the damn prayers, and be done with the whole service in less than half the time?
So. Fasting now. I think it says something that my post for tomorrow includes porn. I don't know what, but it does. Possibly that I feel that being a good person is far, far more important that being a good Jew.
