Hoshanot 2013

Well, how about that. Sukkot has been really great this year so far.

Last year I wrote in my blog post Passion about my frustrations with Hoshanot in my regular shul environment. Well, this year I got the best of both worlds. We had Hoshanot on Tiferet second day again, with me leading Hoshanot again.

First day we were at our regular shul... well, not exactly. We're displaced now as our shul is rebuilding, so we were guests in an unfamiliar building. As a result, Hoshanot were done in the room and it all went rather smoothly on the women's side. Right away I walked over to some other women that I knew would do it and we took the lead, finding the direction to walk, setting the pace, and walking around the room. I was so focused I couldn't count heads, but one of the men said it looked like there were about 20 of us women circling our side of the room. Not all the women participated, but far more than any other time.

So there's no question that part of what needs to happen for this to take place is for the leader of the shul to announce it, but I think also not changing locations helps too. We were there anyway... might as well walk. If we'd gone outside we would have lost people along the way.

Maybe this isn't all politics. Or maybe we're making progress.