On Saturday morning I made it to torah study, where we looked at the end of Deuteronomy, since it's never actually read on shabbat. I realized that there's a sort of twisted way in which Jacob's "blessing" of Levi (which is negative) is similar to Moses's blessing -- Jacob complains about Levi (the person's) anger ("...in their anger they kill men, in their self-will they maim bulls.") (Genesis 49:6; it's plural because it's pairing Shimon and Levi). In Deuteronomy, the tribe of Levi is praised for righteous anger, and as a reward the get to do sacrifices. I pointed out that they're still maiming bulls, but in a positive way, as part of the sacrificial system.
Shmini Atzeret services were good, although there was a painful part of Hallel[3], where half the room was in a different, and seriously painfully different key from the other half. And nobody adjusted themselves. It was pretty painful. Thankfully it was just for one song, but still... (It was even worse, because that was one of the few songs which the leader decided to do. I like to sing a lot during Hallel.) After services, and a nice talk with Batya and another friend during kiddush, I went home for a light lunch and a long nap, and woke up for a light dinner.
Then I walked over to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) for mincha [afternoon] services. That was small, but nice. Afterwards, I chatted a bit with some people I knew slightly, then the guy who was going to lead services the next morning taught some Hallel tunes. That was fun. Then I volunteered to take a torah from WLS (WLLS? WLSS?) down to where services were supposed to be. We got down to the auditorium, to find the lights out in the lobby, and the doors to the auditorium locked. So we all sat down on a bench. It was pretty amusing, actually, seeing four men with torahs sitting on a bench in the dark. Everyone who came by tried the doors, then started laughing at the sight. Eventually the lights came on, and the door was unlocked, and I helped get booklets with the evening service out... but it was decided to have the first part of services up in WLS... so I carried the torah back up there.
I found Danielle, Ann, Caleb, and Russel there (among others). The leader did some subtle silly things with the melodies, although I think that most people (including me) didn't get them all. Then the hakafot[4] were held in the lobby. The dancing was pretty good, but around the 5th hakafa I decided to walk down to Ansche Chesed with Ann, Monica, and Wendy. After a while, Ann and I decided to run down, but then we settled on skipping for a bit, and finally on walking. (Caleb had gone over to Old Broadway). We got to AC on time for the last hakafa, which was fun. Then I stayed for the end of the services, while Ann and Monica and Aimee went over to Shaare Tzedek. Then I went over to Shaare Tzedek, which was on the 7th hakafa. So of course I had to dance some more. That was fun, too, although it was HOT down there, despite the air conditioning. I met several more friends, including some people I haven't seen in a while. After they finished, they had a dinner. It was after 11 by that point, so I only had a bit of fruit, then shmoozed for a while, and finally walked back home. I think I went to sleep by about midnight, which was early enough to be up the next day for services.
Simchat Torah morning services went well; hallel, in particular, was much more melodious. The Hakafot were good and long, and thankfully we made kiddush before starting them. This meant that during breaks one could go out into the sukkah and partake of the munchies and alcohol that people brought. (I brought a bag of "vegge booty", which went quickly, and "fruity booty", which didn't. I don't know why.) The space was fairly small, and the number of children fairly large, which meant I didn't get to do much high-speed dancing, but I made up for it by bouncing around a lot and dancing for long periods of time. (I think the hakafot started around 11:30 and ended around 2ish). Then came the torah reading, where everyone who wants to be called up for an aliya can be. (This is accomplished by repeating the same verses, over and over and...) Things were sped along by the fact that most people were willing to accept group alliyot. The leader was giving misheberachs[5] which were very funny and moving. So of course I had to have an individual one. I wish I could remember my misheberach exactly... Some of the time, the woman who was doing the torah reading was seriously cracking up over his misheberachs. In any case, at last we were finished, around 3:30, and then some people started doing mincha (the afternoon service). At that point, I decided that I was leaving. So I went home, had a bit of food (I'd been snacking during the hakafot), and napped.
In sum: a fun holiday, although not one condusive to acquiring a normal sleep schedule.
[1] Shmini Atzeret: A holiday which nobody quite knows what it's about. It's the 8th day of Sukkot, but seems to be only slightly connected to that holiday.
[2] On Shmini Atzeret, it is not required to eat in the Sukkah (temporary booth created for the holiday of Sukkot). On the other hand, you can if you like. Since it was rainy and cold all day long, we didn't.
[3] Hallel: a collection of festive psalms, said during the morning services on most holidays. (And during the passover seder, also.) There are several psalms which are usually sung out loud; there are some common melodies which I really like. I try to make it to Hallel whenever I can.
[4] Hakafot: festive processions with the Torah. Where I went, a hakafa started with several people getting the honor of holding the torah based on various critera ("student about to graduate, or who just started", "found something new in something old", "had a major change in the last year, or will change in the coming year", etc.) and then a few verses chanted, followed by carrying the torah around in a circle, and then a lot of singing and dancing around them. This happens seven times. The dancing is typically of the "run around in circles" variety, which I like; sometimes of the "walk slowly around in circles" variety, which I don't quite like so much, but thankfully is not often of the type which requires one to remember complicated steps. I found myself jumping around several times during the day and evening of Simchat Torah.
[5] misheberach: a blessing given during the torah service. In this case, it was a blessing for the person (or people) who'd just had an aliyah (been called to the torah).