Sunday, October 11, 2009

Good Intentions

For those of you who love my posts about interesting Jewish things, you are going to love this one...

First of all, this weekend we had two holidays--Shmini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. I'm not going into detail on either because that's not what the post is about. Sorry! Anyhoo, on Shabbos, holidays and every Monday and Thursday, the ba'al koreh reads a portion of the Torah and a man from the congregation is called up to the Torah to have an aliyah. There are between 3 and 7 aliyos depending on the day, it's an honor to have an aliyah, and in our shul men who get one then donate a small amount of money to the shul for this honor. That person says the blessings before and after the ba'al koreh reads a portion of the Torah. On Simchas Torah there are several special aliyos and many other honors that the men bid for. One of these special aliyos is called kol ha'neorim. In this aliyah all of the children in the shul (even the girls) get to participate. It is a segulah for children for the man who reads the blessings for this aliyah. I made sure that Shmuel bid for this aliyah in 2007, and we got pregnant within the year. :-) This year I wanted to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that friends of ours would have this honor. My friend has been married for 6 or 7 years, and I would honestly do anything to see her have the blessing of healthy children. So before the holiday, I called the Rabbi and said that I wanted to make sure her husband would get this aliyah. I told him that I would personally donate the money for it. He said he'd take care of it...

The men bid on the various honors long before I would ever arrive at shul, so I was looking forward to seeing my friend's reaction. As soon as I walk in, she runs over to me and goes "[Hubby] got kol ha'neorim!!!" I was like "I know, I helped plan that." She's like "Uhhh you did? I told him to bid for it." LOL Whooooooops! So much for that plan, they got it themselves. And boy did I feel stupid. :-) Well, bottom line is he got the aliyah, and I hope to hear very good news from her VERY VERY soon!!

Click HERE for more Hebrew & Yiddish word definitions

8 comments:

  1. Kol haKavod - I didn't know that about the segullah! I wish I could get Yaakov to bid on it for me here in Ir haKadosh. Kiss the babybugs for me - I miss them terribly. Love, AuntieBeh (not to be confused with Aunt Becca - with all due respect)

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  2. How very interesting! I hope your friend receives some good news soon . . .

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  3. I have never heard of this, but it is fascinating. And wonderful that he got the aliyah (certainly with your help!). Sending many blessing myself to your friends and much love to you.

    I'm here from Blogger Bingo, but glad to find your blog.

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  4. This is very interesting! I'm from BLoggy Bingo too and glad to find this post :) have a great day!

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  5. My gosh - this is pretty cool! I'm here for blogger bingo - thanks for the insight into the Jewish holidays...

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  6. My gosh - this sounds very interesting! I'm here for blogger bingo - thanks for providing some insight on the Jewish holidays!

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  7. Using this as my Blogger Bingo Round 2 post with non-English words...

    The aliyah bidding process is so interesting, I had no idea all of that went on behind the scenes.

    Hope your friends have good news soon!

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