I’m not entirely sure how, but somehow, in the middle of countless other Rosh Hashanah related errands, I managed to finish all of mishna pesachim last night. I couldn’t get it in before sunset, but I was definitely done before hatzot (midnight). Ten chapters in about 2.5 days – that’s not half bad, although Phil would never have tolerated this lack of timeliness. In the future more time to analyze things in depth might be helpful, although I am learning Gemarah pesachim with a friend (we only just started), so I will be going over everything in great detail later.

Things I learned which somewhat surprised me:

1. The korbanot (sacrifices), which until now i’ve always ignored due to their lack or relevance, are actualyl kind of cool.
2. They’re also fairly bloody. For some reason I was reminded of the opening scene in Blade where the vampires have the sprinkler system rigged to spout blood and they have a “blood bath”.
3. My daily commute is just long enough to cover one mishnah in a reasonable amount of depth (meaning read the Hebrew, check the kehati where I can’t figure it out, and then also his commentary). I’m going to have to start taking advantage of this.

Now I’m going to Lower Merion for Rosh Hashanah. Although LM isn’t normally what I’d call a happening place to be, I am very much looking forward to hearing Jerry Gornish lead services. I’ve heard a lot of hazanim in a lot of different cities, and I have never heard one who can hold a candle to Jerry Gornish. (No offense to the countless hazanim, both regular and occasional who I count among my friends. He really is that good).

Shanah tova to all

That’s it ! I’ve had it with these ubiquitous snakes on this nefarious plane!