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...