Limmudfest report

[lethargic_man]

Limmudfest last weekend started, for me, with TikkunTrek, cycling (or hiking) around the Peak District. It was my first experience off-road cycling. It took me a little while to get used to the idea that faced with stones, rather than avoiding them as I would with a road bike on the grounds they might puncture my tyre or possibly throw me off, the thing to do with a mountain bike is charge at them as fast as possible and let your momentum and the moon-buggy tyres carry you straight over. On the on-road sections, I was right at the head of the pack (partially because on the first day I was using a bike with SPDs), but on the off-road sections I was vying for place at the back, along with the other two who had never been mountain biking before.

Mountain biking, I concluded is fun, in small doses. On Thursday we did about ten miles... but it took us nearly four hours (admittedly including frequent stops and divrei Torah from Rabbi Marc Soloway). Apparently this is about par for the course for mountain biking.

Here we are at the highest point in the local area of the Peak District, surrounded by heathery moorland, and looking surprisingly unmuddy (the latest bout of rain must have mostly washed it off!):

I think the original plan had been to camp out in the middle of nowhere that night and cycle back to base in Cliff College the following morning; however that plan fell through, and we ended up overnighting on-site at Cliff College. At which point half the trekkers, myself included, decided to abandon camping and stay indoors that night! Personally, after being rained on almost all day, I had had enough of the Great Outdoors for one day!

The following day—under mostly better weather, which fortunately lasted for the rest of the weekend—we set off again, this time for the rolling countryside of the lower areas to the south. Towards the end, I managed to fluff changing gears and the chain fell off. Whilst I was stopped by the side of the road fixing this, Marc whizzed past, shouting out "That's what you get for overtaking the rabbi!" I was still giggling at that days later.

Back from the cycling, Limmudfest proper started. This photo is actually from the last year's album on Facebook, but it gives the idea well enough:

Actually, a goodly wodge of the people in it were probably present this year as well. Many of the usual suspects were there, plus people from as diverse places as Israel and Moldova.

As I had expected, Limmudfest was less intellectual and more informal than Limmud Conference. Nevertheless, I got some good Jewish learning in, some of which I shall be blogging in due course. (Probably—I didn't take coronium, so it'll be back to the bad old days of transcribing shorthand.)

I also heard quite a bit of music, including "Los Tres"—half of Sephardi band Los Desterrados, whose repertoire included Ladino versions of חַד גַדְיָא and אֶחָד מִי יוֹדֵעַ. On Sunday evening I heard Israeli funk band The Apples. As the handbook puts it "Mixing big band jazz, raw groove, scratching and samples, their explosive live experience will have you up and partying into the night". Their line up consisted of: percussion, double-bass, a large brass section—trumpet, trombone, saxophone and bass saxophone—and two DJs dressed in fluorescent yellow jumpsuits. I've never heard anything like it before, in terms of being a combination of scratching with a live horn section!

I was responsible for organising the Masorti services at Limmudfest this year, and they went down well—not least because we had an aufruf, of two of the Fest machers. Because I was acting as gabbai, it made it readily apparent that I was in charge, which meant I got quite a few people coming up to me afterwards and congratulating me on pulling together such a good service, which was gratifying. One amusing point: at the start of the Torah service, I called out, "Is there a cohen in the house?", and was met with "There's a doctor!" :o)

I was also gratified that after last year, in which apparently the Masorti services did not hold Shabbos minyan, this year we did so and got thirteen. (I tried for maariv on motzei Shabbos too, and though we fell far short, without us combining the Orthodox service would not have had a minyan.) Amongst the congregants for mincha was a rather confused lady I roped in, who said she had never been to a service where she was counted beforehand. When it came to the leyning, I was called up for cohen, then I asked if there were any levis. She raised her hand, so I called her up... but when I got to "בַּת לֵוִי", she said, "I'm not a levi!" Turns out she thought I'd asked if there were any ladies!

Comments

[snjstar.livejournal.com]

Great summary! Limmudfest was amazing! :-)

It was amazing

[wein-glass.livejournal.com]

It was an amazing LimmudFest and I am hoping to blog about it soon myself.

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

I had at least a little bit of Jewish learning where I came mostly rather towards the end. I did not miss the whole session of Lindsey Tailor-Guthartz though. She gave us lessons about how to deal with the missionar at the door. I enjoyed "Los Tres" as well. I was glad going out to an adult event with the children. Otherwise I could not go in the afternoon as a full time worker in the creche.