(no subject)

[lethargic_man]

Boy have I been busy the last week and a half! First there was the pre-Limmud Shabbos and then Limmud conference itself, which was fun. No sessions that knocked my socks off this year—I suppose such things are a rarity—but lots of good learning and performances attended nonetheless.

Somewhere along the way I seemed to have gained a level of self-confidence I was previously lacking, so that rather than, as normal, floating miserably around the edges of the bar in the evenings hoping someone would become detached from the crowd so I could talk to them, I floated happily around the edges of the bar hoping someone would become detached from the crowd so I could talk to them.

I gave the same two talks this year as last: The first of them, the Semitic languages talk, was first thing on Sunday morning, before most people had arrived. I got a dozen people at the start, which increased to twenty-something during the course of the talk. I didn't count, but two people told me that it got up to thirty, though it didn't seem that much to me. It generally went down well, but I did have one audience member who knew more about the subject than me, and kept putting her hand up to say "what about such-and-such?", to which my response was inevitably "I'm coming to that later". That was rather annoying, and I couldn't figure out why she'd wasted time attending a talk she already knew about rather than going to a session where she could learn something.

My Twenty Things About Hebrew They Never Taught You In Cheder talk was the bigger success of the two this time: I got about thirty people, and two of the audience members were still arguing over something I had said five minutes after I finished, when I left to go have dinner. Not only that, but I actually learned something fascinating at my own talk: I'd said that ד without a דָגֶשׁ was originally pronounced /ð/ (the first sound in English "this"), and one of the audience members said "Oh, so that's why the Talmud says you should lengthen the last sound of the first sentence of the שְׁמַע^*: You can't lengthen the /d/ sound we say today, you can only stress it; but you can lengthen a /ð/."

* So as to be clear you are saying שמע ישראל ה׳ אלהינו ה׳ אחד "Hear O Israel: the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is one", and not the typographically similar שמע ישראל ה׳ אלהינו ה׳ אחר "Hear O Israel: the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is another", which you really don't want to be proclaiming!

Then, the day after Limmud finished I was invited to a Shakespearean-themed New Year's Eve party. Not wishing to spend time or money on a costume when I wasn't sure I'd not be too tired after Limmud to go, I went with a blade (well, actually a file) sticking out of my chest, wearing a badge showing a map of Poland. This was, however, too subtle for more than two or three people to get: I was Polonius (because the Latin for Poland is Polonia). That was fun, and lots of other people went with more impressive costumes, but my camera died before Christmas, so I have no record of them (or my own). :-(

Then, as if three late nights in a row weren't enough, was the Big One Friday night at Moishe House, with a service taken by Darshan that went on for over an hour and a half, and a house packed full of people. I meant to leave at eleven, so I could be home by twelve and in shul at a good time, but when eleven came I was still having a good time, and I decided to stay a little longer; and then people started singing, so I couldn't leave then, and it ended up being one by the time I got to bed. Moishe House have only been doing this for the Friday after Limmud for two years now, but already it feels like it wouldn't be Limmud without it.

Then, to round off the party season, I got invited out for Shabbos lunch, which doesn't happen often enough, and ended up having a good afternoon then too. (<waves> Hi Fran!)

Finally, a note to myself: In future if someone asks you "How was the Tate?", try not to hear it as "How was the date?" and answer accordingly, if there are beans you don't wish spilled quite yet...

Comments

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Also, if someone asks "How was the date?", don't go on about the shock of the new and how there's just too much gratuitous nudity these days.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Speak for yourself! ;^b