.... and boy are my arms tired

[rhu]

The elder son of friends of long standing became a bar miztvah today. We had originally planned to stay with friends in Cambridge, but Alissa got sick a few nights ago and we thought that discretion would be the better part of valor and canceled the sleeping over bit. But I really didn't want to miss the simcha.

So at 7:20 this morning I set out for Cambridge. At the 3-mile mark I stopped off at sethg_prime and lucretia_borgia's house to rehydrate and drop off a bag with some supplies. I then continued on towards Cambridge, donning my tallit just before leaving the Greater Boston eruv at the crossing over the Mass Pike, and then taking it off again once I was ensconced in the Cambridge eruv by the Mobile station. I arrived at the shul at 9:20 for a 9:30 service. 6.2 miles, 2 hours. Woot. Rehydrated again.

The service was wonderful. Back when I was at MIT I used to belong to the Tremont St. shul, and it was wonderful to see how it has grown over the intervening years. There were some wonderful harmonies, which were great in the acoustics of that room.

And it was amazing seeing so many people I know from different contexts. I first met the bar mitzvah's parents when we all belonged to Minyan Shaleym in Brookline, and there were many folks from those days there today. I sang with the bar mitzvah's father in Zamir for many years, and there were several Zamir folk there. The bar miztvah and his brother go to JCDS, and there were a lot of JCDS families there. Plus of course there were people that I knew from when I was a member at Tremont St, there were people I know from Arisia, there were people I know from LiveJournal. It felt like a homecoming for me.

The bar miztvah himself did a fine job leading services, reading Torah, and giving a really good dvar Torah. I particularly liked the Midrash that he brought in: tzaraat is a punishment for lashon hara, and a building with tzaraat must be examined by the kohen and, if it is infected, it must be razed to its foundation. The midrash was that there was a building that suffered because of people's lashon harah, and Yirmiyahu ha-Kohen pronounced judgment on it, and it was razed to its foundations --- that, of course, being the first Temple.

After a luncheon kiddush I walked back to sethg_prime and lucretia_borgia's house; they weren't there but I was able to hydrate, rest on their couch for about half an hour, and then walk the rest of the way home. I got home just before 5.

So I walked a total of over 12 miles today. I don't think I could have done that if I hadn't been biking again this week; the last 2 miles were a little tough. But it was well worth it to share in the happiness of the bar mitzvah and to see all my friends from past lives.

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Twelve miles? Oy! But mazel tov!