When I was a young lad growing up in Hungary, before the soviet system really pushed itself upon us we still had weekly religious education in middle school. Every religion went to a different classroom where the appropriate instructions were given. In the last years our teacher was a well know Budapest rabbi. He thought us how to read and made us rea from the prayer books. Naturally, our performances were graded at the end of the school year.
This teacher also made us to go every Friday afternoon to a student sabbath service in Budapest's main synagogue. This used to be a student service and kids from all over the city came. There were boys and girls together and we spent most of our time fooling around with the girls. Also, because our knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet was less than acceptable it was very difficult to follow the ongoing service.
Teachers walking between the isles always corrected us by turning our prayer books to the correct pages. Well, this was then.
Tonight my wife and I decided to attend the Sabbath service at New York's Temple E-Manuel on Fifth Avenue. It is a beautiful temple and we were there several times already. It is a reformed congregation and the service is primarily in English. And so is the prayer book. Well, it is half and half. But that makes it a lot easier to follow what goes on.
So, tonight we went there. It started at 6pm and lasted an hour. Driving home to where we live , another hour and the night is done. I just didn't have any more time to do a serious writing.
Shabbath, Shalom!
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