Five years on

Today is my baby brother’s birthday. That would be the brother with the teenaged son. We are not getting any younger, but Alex is getting older. He’s about ready to start driving. Yikes.

Dave’s birthday coincides with my Hebrew school class leading services tonight. This will be my fifth time watching my students stand in front of the bimah and chant prayers and psalms. They’re a little nervous about Mizmor L’David and Mi Chamocha—I wound up asking the Rabbi to record it with us on Tuesday and emailed the mp3 to whichever student requested it—but they’ll be fine. And, I told them, Ms. Yourish would be bringing a special snack to the Oneg (reception afterwards). It’s brownies. I thought briefly about making them myself, but Costco has kosher brownies available in a 3-lb. container, so off to Costco I went this afternoon. Turns out the children are going to have even more of a surprise: There’s hamentaschen tonight. Usually, they have to wait until Purim, but apparently we had extras, or the adminstrator wanted to make sure that the Friday night crowd got some, too.

I have noticed many changes in my students over the last five years. My first class wasn’t nearly as confident leading services as my more recent classes have been, and I ascribe that entirely to the rabbi and director of education, both of whom are moving on this year. They instituted a program of twice-a-week t’filah (prayers) practice, during which we learn the Friday and Saturday prayers. That, in my opinion, is what makes them so great leading services—not my making them practice a few weeks before the date.

Tonight’s my students’ turn to shine. They’ll do well. I’ve been practicing with them in class, and they always turn out better than they think they will. This year, I have a student that is very vocal about his opinions, and he kept saying “We stink!” during practice. It took a little convincing, because of course that kind of sentiment catches on. We’ll see how they feel tonight. I’m guessing they’ll decide they did well. Especially after a couple of brownies and hamentaschen.

Update: Perfect attendance, and they were superb. I was so proud of them.