The Tehillim Reading Part 16 - The Final Sefer

Originally I had thought that by the last sefer all the kids concentration would have wavered, but I as wrong. The intensity of everyone's concentration was frightening, and even though one or two lost interest in the reading, the concentration of the rest of the kids could not be broken. I think lots of people were very impressed by the behavior of my friends.

To Be Continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 15 - The Talis

Every morning all talis-wearing Jews have a common problem:
how to keep the talis from falling off your shoulder every second. Some people just don't care and keep on picking up their talis every few seconds, others choose to buy a Talis clip and attach their talis around their shoulders and that solves the problem. I was very frustrated with the first solution, so I moved on to the second solution. In the middle of Ben-Yehuda street, there was a store that sold the perfect clip for me. Bubbe & Zayde very lovingly bought it for me, and throughout the tehillim reading, I didn't need to fix my talis even one time.

To Be Continued....

The Tehillim Reading Part 14 - Recording the Reading

Right before minyan, Abba ran home to get the tripod and the TasCam. The tascam is a device of very advanced technology, that records audio at very high quality. We charged the tascam the day before, to be sure that the machine would be properly charged for the reading. We erased all the data on the memory card, so we could record the whole reading without having any problems in the middle. I was very nervous in case Abba would've published the audio online, but I calmed down when he assured me that he wasn't going to upload it to the internet. Now it turns out that I uploaded a perek myself, so everybody who had to miss it, could still hear me. Click here to hear me lein:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?hua4fowkptst2lf

To Be Continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 13 - The Yad

A few days before the reading we decided to use Yaakov Avdiel's Yad for the sefer Tehillim. During my final rehearsals I used the yad, and got accustomed  to pointing it at the right word. As written in the previous post, we moved from room to room between every sefer. It turns out most of the time we forgot a thing or two at the previous room, and it turns out that we always forgot to bring the yad with us. Since we always forgot the yad, at the beginning of each sefer, Abba went looking for the yad. When he wasn't looking  for the yad he stood next to me correcting me when I was wrong, and encouraging me to keep going, but when he was looking for the Yad, Zayde switched him and encouraged me even more to continue. All in all, I had the Yad with me for a 1/3 of the reading, while the rest of the time, it was forgotten behind.

To Be Continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 12 - Choosing the Rooms

When we decided on the reading times, we had another problem. Throughout the morning there were supposed to be many more minyanim in all the various rooms, so where would I read????!!!!. Each time someone suggested a room, we found a reason why we couldn't do it in that room. After lots of talking and very tiring debates, we came to a conclusion that  I couldn't do the reading in one room. I was so happy, I thought that meant that I wouldn't have to read all of Tehillim, but that thought was perished when Abba finished his sentence by saying that I would do it in various rooms. Afterwards we scheduled the reading in such a way that i'd read a certain sefer in one room, and when the next minyan begins we would've already moved to a unoccupied room. Throughout the reading we moved the sefer tehillim and lots of other equippment 4 times, from one room to another.

To Be Continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 11 - The Signing Book

At every bar mitzvah, the parents provide a place for people to write a Mazal Tov message to the Bar Mitzvah boy. Usually it is just a picture of the bar mitzvah kid pasted on a piece of cardboard, with a lot of white space around it for people to sign. We decided to get a book with a picture of me on the front, so that people can sign throughout the whole book. For Yaakov Avdiel's bar mitzvah, my parents had to go out all the way to jerusalem to find a signing book. Fortunately, a new store that sells signing books opened up recently, and it was built right outside Alon Shvut. Therefore for my bar-mitzvah we bought the book without having to drive to Jerusalem. In my opinion, It was a great choice for a signing book and inside were very beautiful comments from all my relatives, friends, and anyone else who signed. Some people just wrote Mazal tov, some wrote am expressive paragraph and some even wrote poems.

To Be Finished...

The Tehillim Reading Part 10 - The Tefillin Debate

While we were planning out the Tehillim reading, we noticed a problem. When would I take off my tefillin? right after davening, or after the whole Tehillim reading. Of course I also couldn't decide what I wanted, since I was at a big debate with myself. Should I take off my tefillin right after davening, because then the tight straps of the tefillin wouldn't bother me throughout the reading, but on the second hand it would've been a huge mitzvah to read all of sefer Tehillim with my tefillin on. After lots of arguing and fighting, we finally came to a conclusion. The conclusion was, that i'd wear the tefillin for the first sefer, and in the break between the first sefer and the second sefer I would take them off. 

To Be Continued...

Title: The Tehillim Reading Part 9 - The Slideshow

The day before the reading, Abba asked me to make a Slideshow. In the slideshow he wanted me to write each perek on a different slide, and the page number that each perek is on. as shown below:

I agreed, and spent many hours on it, but the slideshow never seem to be near done, it kept going on and on, perek by perek, page by page, untill finally I finished. When my father looked over it, he said to make in each slide the words bigger. I was so frusturated, I worked so hard on doing it and now i'm redoing it again. Despite the frustration, I did it again, exactly the way he wanted it. When I was done, I added slides the welcomed everyone to the begining of each sefer, as shown below:

To Be Continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 8 - The Fanta Bottle

The day before the tehillim reading I insisted that Imma and Abba buy me my own little fanta bottle. They argued a little, because they thought it wasn't good for my throat, but I insisted since it was my favorite drink. I was very relieved when they finally gave in and agreed to buy me the bottle. The day of the reading I got up extremely surprised to find that instead of a fanta bottle I got a bottle wrapped in purple cloth with a pasuk from tehillim inscribed on the cloth. After a while I realized that it was a fanta bottle, and Imma had covered it with a respectable piece of cloth.

To Be Continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 7 - The Takehome Book

Throughout the reading, about 100-200 people came and went. Usually at events people make benchers, while we printed 150 Tehillim books. The reason that we supplied so many Tehillim books for people to follow with, was so everyone would be on the same page number (see upcoming post part 9). On the cover was a famous picture of David playing his harp, and all the animals were in a trance from the beauty of his playing. The original manuscript contained melted gold foil in a few places, so in order to imitate this, we raised the gold for real in those few places.  It was a really nice and impressive piece of art, and I'm sure everyone was happy that they got to take one home. 

To Be Continued...

Tehillim Reading Part 6 - The Food

During my reading we hired someone to set up tables with lots of different types of foods. It was a tough job to set everything up, even with our help. The even tougher part was getting the food. We asked someone to go buy all the basic food in a supermarket - with our money, of course - such as: drinks, tea bags, and smilar stuff. We also made sure to order lots of bakery food. so a week before, we called up the bakery, and ordered about 15.5 pounds of different varities of pastries. We also ordered 6 trays of fruits and vegetables, but those weren't nearly finished by the end of the reading. We also had one very nice cake that was made specifically for this occasion. The cake was the shape of a harp, and on the edge the number 150 built out of sour sticks. I was very impressed with what we managed to pull off without catering.

Special thanks to:
Tzipporah Witty - Setting up
Pieprz Family - Doing ALL the Shopping
Beazley Family - Making the beautiful cake

To Be Continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 5 - The Breaks

The most tiring part of the event was the breaks. My hand got so sore from all the handshaking, that it seemed more tiring then the reading itself. Even though it was very tiring, I did get to see all the food tables set up. Unfortunately, everytime I managed to avoid people's hands and get to the table to put a pastry on my plate, it was time for the next sefer. Even though I didn't get to eat, I did get to drink. I even got my own bottle of SCOTCH to drink during the breaks (JUST KIDDING, it was a bottle of fanta).

To Be Continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 4 -- While Reading...

Through the reading I made just a few mistakes. The reason for the mistakes, is that I want to see everybody around me, so I pick up my head and look around while continuing the reading by heart. During the third Sefer, I noticed that Rav Rimon walked in. I tried my best not to make mistakes, but I couldn't resist looking around at everyone, and unfortunately, Making mistakes. Later on the week, the Rav congratulated me for all my mistakes. I asked him why, and he said that by making mistakes proves that I know it all by heart.

To Be Continued...

Title: The Tehillim Reading Part 3 - During the Reading

As I got up on to the Bimah, I had a sudden urge to run home and hide, so I wouldn't have to read the whole sefer tehillim in public. despite the urge, I managed to get to the bimah, and start unwrapping the sefer tehillim. When I was Ready, I cleared my throat, Adjusted my glasses, and overcame the urge to run away. I began with the bracha, which had its own completely different nigun. I felt as if my voice was stronger then ever before, which gave me courage to continue. It felt as if any moment everybody would leave, and I would get a break to relax. When it turned out that no one was leaving, I was half relieved and half worried. I was half relieved since everybody was staying to listen to me, but I was half worried, since I was worried I would make a mistake, and then make a fool out of myself.

To Be Continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 2 -The Begining

On Tuesday May 29, I woke up at 5 AM. I got out of bed astounded to find a whole pan of roast, freshly cooked, waiting for me to eat it. I ate my share of the roast, then got my tefillin bag ready for davening. I was so excited since I was about to read all of sefer Tehillim, from a Klaf, in Public, With a compilcated tune, in no less than one hour from then. Even with the excitement I managed to go to shul to daven. When I  got to shul I put on my Talis & Tefillin, and Davened at the 6 AM minyan. at 6:29 AM exactly, Davening finished and I got up to the Bimah, ready to begin.

To be continued...

The Tehillim Reading Part 1 - Intro

On tuesday May 29, I read the whole sefer of Tehillim. It started at 6:30 AM, after the 6 a-clock minyan, and ended at 10:30 AM. Why that minyan?, well it all started 3 years ago, when I decided to stop davening at school, and daven at the earliest minyan in shul. I chose the 6 a clock minyan since it was the only minyan that managed to finish davening before the bus came. Since then i've been going to that same minyan for 3 years. Another reason why I decided to begin the tehillim reading after that minyan, is because that we had to finish the reading before it got late. Since I decided to deliver the reading over the course of the whole morning, every person came for a few minutes then left, and got satisfied with my leining.

To Be Continued...

Davening Ma'ariv

On Friday May 25, I turned 13 years old. According to the Jewish religion, I turned 13 the night before May 25, therefore I was allowed to daven ma'ariv that night. I went to the 20:00 Ma'ariv the night, and was disappointed to find that there was a man that who had an obligation to be the chazan. I left shul and came back for the 20:30 Ma'ariv, and was pleased to find, that no one wanted to be chazan. I went up to the bimah and davened Ma'ariv. It was soooooooooo exciting!!!!. I finally felt like a man!

THE END