Uneventful

The last days went by fairly uneventfully. That is, unless you count the going-ons in shul.

The rabbi solidified his position of being in his final contract (with about two years to go) with his stupid games this week.

First, he had a baby boy, his fourth, so mazel tov and best of luck to him.

Then came the stupid rabbi tricks.

Last time we said Yitkor, the rabbi decided to speak after Yizkor. Factoring the time to speak plus the appeal time, this made Yizkor 30 minutes earlier, and caused a number of people to miss it.

You'd think he would be more sensitive to Yizkor sayers, as he has been saying it since he was a young child.

So on the first day of Yom Tov, the president announced that the rabbi would be speaking before Yizkor, if that was OK with the Kiddush Club. How the kiddush club fits in here is beyond me, but that was the announcement.

I, like many others, assumed that the president was making a joke.

The speech would be before, and who cares if a group of men need to go out and have some triple 7 or slivovitz.

That evening, at the announcements at maariv, the chairman of the board (in place of the absent president) announced the rabbi would be speaking after yizkor, which prompted a shouting match between members and the rabbi. The rabbi wanted to know who could guarantee that their would not be kiddush club during haftorah, and since the bulk of the kiddush club was not there, no one could make that promise. So it was left unresolved. And being this is a Young Israel, their is only a fraction of the membership their in the evening who could convey this info their spouses.

Thank God, I am not a yizkor sayer. Both my parents are alive and well. But if you were the rabbi, and there was no real difference between speaking before yizkor and after yizkor, and one way will make members happy and one will make them angry, why would you speak later and piss everyone off?

Is he asking to get fired?

He has been on a kick for the past few years to get everyone to come in for the ommunity yitkor, the Tzahal Yizkor and the Holocaust victims Yizkor. I think Yizkor is creepy, and I have no interest in being in for the service. We never did it when I was a kid, and I don't plan on starting now.

So the rabbi comes into the hall, and announces that everyone should come in for the last three yizkors. That's fine. But then he stood outside, and got in a staring match with me and the two people I was talking to.

Does he think this is a high-school hallway. Is he the principal or the rabbi?

He made his announcement. As an adult, I have the option to go in or stay out. I chose to stay out. He needs to go back in, and say the Yizkors that he feels are important. Or come over and talk with us. This stare down treatment is total crap.