Sukkot & Simchat Torah

shalom to the greater gonging community.

The NF was asked to lead Maariv the first night of sukkot....It's kind of fun being the shaliach tzibbur for a big (450+ people) minyan but it was a bit annoying that only a handful of people joined in for the English/German shalosh regalim kaddish before the amida. Here is a link to the sheet music.  I'm still working on getting a sound file....

A good time was had by all over Sukkot, .זמן שמחתינו----- that is other than an NF fan who wrote to the NF describing his disgust of an experience he had at his local hashkama minyan on the first day of chag....Yes, Shacharit was fine (even if the chazzan screwed up Hoshanot), our fan was even forgiving when the chazzan for Musaf forgot ותערב. However, when the chazzan for musaf used the Partisan's song for kedusha, our fan had had enough. As our fan wrote:
"Yes, I just love that joyous image of jews in ghettos fighting the Nazis and marching under the gates of the camps to liven up my yomtov"

(At some point we may need to do a post on inappropriate melodies in shul)

Another NF fan told me of his disgust when on the first night of sukkot  the baal tefilla in his shul used the pre-mussaf kaddish from the yamim noraim. If you don't know the nusach, don't get up there.

Simchat Torah
The NF happily spent some time in shul over Sukkot reading תולדות חג שמחת תורה by א יערי which identifies the origins (all in late antiquity) and various minhagim (very sketchy) practiced around the world on this awful day. I came across a minhag from E. Europe where the village melamed would lead all the little children through the village yelling out צאן קדשים to which the children would respond:

Mehhhhhh

Yes. יערי  then dedicates 2 pages in his book breaking this minhag down mentioning in which towns the children would say, Mehh Mehh and which villages they just said Mehh.

So the NF brings the 4 little NFs to shul on simchat Torah night only to find an old guy yelling: צאן קדשים. Children responding loudly were rewarded with lots of candy.

All in all, hakafot were bareable at night...

In the AM, the NF davened at the 5:15 AM minyan, finishing at 7:45 AM. The problem: I ended up returning to shul at 9:30 with the children....At least kol Hanearim was very well organized (150+ children making their way  after their aliya to shake hands with the rav and get a bag of junk.)