{"id":2133,"date":"2018-03-07T10:54:41","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T10:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/2018\/03\/07\/aliyah-101-what-you-should-know-before-being-called-to-the-torah-3"},"modified":"2018-06-12T07:56:07","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T07:56:07","slug":"aliyah-101-what-you-should-know-before-being-called-to-the-torah-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/2018\/03\/07\/aliyah-101-what-you-should-know-before-being-called-to-the-torah-3\/","title":{"rendered":"A Woman Describes Her First Aliyah to the Torah"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this personal article<\/a>, Lauren Hamburger<\/a> relays her first experience of being called up to the Torah for an aliyah, a practice that is traditionally reserved for men. The author describes how it felt to be an active participant in the service, as opposed to an observer, for the first time. This\u00a0article was shared on MyJewishLearing.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

My First Aliyah L\u2019Torah<\/h2>\n

Partnership minyans<\/a>\u00a0are a relatively new phenomenon in our part of northwest London, so when one started around the corner from us, my husband and I made a point of going with our three young children. We\u2019ve been half a dozen times in the past but this Shabbat was the first time that I had the opportunity to participate.<\/p>\n

I walked in and sat down, ready to sing and listen to the men and women leading the service. Before I had a chance to open my\u00a0siddur<\/i>\u00a0though, one of the organizers approached me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you like an\u00a0aliyah<\/i>?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Too surprised to give it much thought, I answered yes. Only in the minutes afterward did I have a chance to think about what it meant. Having an\u00a0aliyah<\/i>\u00a0was always something that I thought one day would happen, but I had figured that I would need more advance preparation. I read through the blessings I had heard many a bar mitzvah\u00a0<\/span>boy read aloud and felt ready.<\/p>\n

When my turn came, the\u00a0gabbai<\/i><\/a>\u00a0called my name and I approached the\u00a0bima<\/i>, podium. I kissed the Torah,\u00a0held on to the\u00a0etzei chayim<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and recited the blessing. The same blessing that I had heard my father, a\u00a0Kohen, repeat so often at our local synagogue growing up. As I said the words, it was his voice I heard coming through.<\/p>\n

Then as I stood next to the person reading Torah, I was able to directly see the beautifully inscribed letters as she recited them. I was totally focused on the Torah reading and the portion, oblivious for once of my young daughter running around or the other distractions I normally get drawn to in synagogue. When the reader finished, the\u00a0gabbai<\/i>\u00a0recited a\u00a0mi\u2019sheberach<\/i><\/a>\u00a0prayer for my family, making an official connection between one generation and the next. I will forever have a connection to the seventh\u00a0aliyah<\/i>\u00a0of\u00a0Parashat Emor, and felt honored to have the chance to participate so publicly.<\/p>\n

I made my way back to my seat amid smiles and whisperings of\u00a0yasher koach<\/i>\u00a0from friends, acknowledging that I was part of the service and, for the first time, more than an observer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this personal article, Lauren Hamburger relays her first experience of being called up to the Torah for an aliyah, a practice that is traditionally reserved for men. The author describes how it felt to be an active participant in the service, as opposed to an observer, for the first time. This\u00a0article was shared on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=2133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2134\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=2133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=2133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matnasim.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=2133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}