My Leining Nightmares
The gabbai called me up today and inquired if I could lein this week. I usually ascede right away, but today I hesitated for a moment. I don't believe that dreams are a portend of anything to come, but I still hestitated to respond for a moment as I recalled my dream from Friday night.
I was leining in shul. I started reading in the middle of a panel and as I neared the end I started to roll the atze hayyim (finials) to advance to the next panel. All of a sudden the panel I was reading from started to roll out of the Torah to reveal another panel underneath. I realized that the panel I had been reading from was entirely detached from the Torah and was sitting loose, rolled into the Torah. For whatever reason, an entire panel had been omitted from this Torah, and instead of sewing the missing panel into place someone had simply rolled it into the Torah.
This is the first time I had this dream and the truth is it really wasn't that "scary." It wasn't my fault and the situation was easily rectified by removing another Torah from the ark.
But I do have some really scary recurring nightmares, even though I haven't leined on a steady basis in many years. One is that I oversleep and arrive in shul late to find everyone waiting for me. (In fact, this was a big fear of mine and I used to set a million alarm clocks to ensure I would wake up on time.) Another nightmare is that I arrive in shul having prepared the wrong parshah (or alternatively I forgot altogether that I was supposed to lein and didn't prepare at all). The worst, however, is the nightmare in which I open the Torah to lein only to discover that the sofer used a script or writing system I can't read (generally Coptic, sometimes Paleo-Hebrew/Ktav Ivri and once even Cunieform).
And then there was the real-life nightmare (click here), when I almost lost my voice leining Megillat Ester (which I consider the most difficult leining).
So am I crazy? Well if yes, at least I am in good company with the Rebbetzin's Husband (click here).
Labels: Leining
posted by Lion of Zion at 1:31 AM
15 Comments:
Last week my husband got to shul and the gabbai from the shul next door had already been looking for him. My husband was scheduled to lain in our shul. But when the rabbi began to speak, my husband popped over next door, instructing my son to call him when they resumed davening. He had enough time to lain and get back to the shul for the last 20 min of the rabbi's speech.
MOI:
i'm a little confused. i thought one of the benefits of living in israel is that so many shuls don't have rabbis' speeches?
and what exactly do you mean that he got back in time for the *last* 20 minutes. how long was this speech?
The last leining nightmare you mention is one I've actually had as well. In my version, I open the sefer to find the text written in English, and the kahal expecting me to lein in English, or to simultaneously translate back to Hebrew.
Fun stuff.
Only a true scholar could have dreams like that.You're in the wrong profession![I know, I know, it pays the bills]
So, are you leining or not?
I have leyning nightmares as well. They often revolve around relatively simple things - like someone expecting me to leyn a difficult parasha when I haven't prepared, not waking up in time, etc. - but often can get a little weird. It's gotten worse lately - I tend to be too tired Friday night to learn all of the leyning, so I just 'trust' I'll wake up at 0700 to finish the preparation. It's worked so far, but definitely a dangerous habit.
For that matter, I've always found this week's parasha to be particularly difficult to learn. I haven't a clue why - I must have leyned it 3 or so times by now - but I have the toughest time getting through it.
Thanks for the link! Those dreams are familiar on this end as well.
I'm telling it like it is (was).
JORDAN:
now that you mention it, i've also dreamed that i go up to lein and all there is on the bimah is an english bible
MDJ:
yes. (even though i haven't time to look more into that ה הידיעה, which pops up this week)
HAIM:
beleive it or not, some the skills from my previous line of work with rare books has come in handy recently with the new profession. interesting stories, but i can't blog about it.
ENDER:
i think this is going to be one of those weeks where i fall asleep early on rely on getting up early in the morning
I have leining/davening dreams quite often (I wouldn't go so far as to call them "nightmares"). These include pasul sifrei Torah, or even sifrei Torah which turn out to not be sifrei Torah at all, forgetting tunes, being too dark to make out the words, having someone else go to the amud when I was supposed to, etc. etc...
These never happen in real life (except for maybe the last one).
I've also found plenty of mistakes in Sifrei Torah over the years, such as missing letters (at least three different cases), extra letter, tav instead of hei, final nun instead of final hei, and a really interesting case in an old sefer where the scribe must have forgotten to write the top half of a lamed, leaving it ressebling a kaf.
That should have been "final nun instead of final chaf".
Which heh? And I can see why expericence reading inscrutable scribbles would be helpful to you.
The second of your three nightmares is a variant on one that a lot of people have, even years after college: you get to the final, and realize that you haven't done any of the work since the beginning of term, in fact, have completely forgotten that you signed up for the class, forgot to go to class, etc.
THANBO:
i never had nightmares about college, although it probably would have done me some good had i had them while i was enrolled.
SHMUEL:
i find it very hard to pay attention for mistakes when leining. (i know that's not good)
MDJ:
my heh or shmuel's heh?
believe it or not, my experience with hebrew dates has also come in handy.
I don't know, which ever one you mentioned in your response to me above.
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