Isn’t It All? | Teen Ink

Isn’t It All? MAG

September 14, 2010
By OfficialApprover PLATINUM, Orefield, Pennsylvania
OfficialApprover PLATINUM, Orefield, Pennsylvania
48 articles 0 photos 1752 comments

Favorite Quote:
Grab life by the balls. -Slobberknocker
We cannot change the cards we're dealt just how we play the hand
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted
It's pretty easy to be smart when you're parroting smart people
-Randy Pausch


I was standing, again. My feet felt as if I'd walked a billion miles. Or so I thought. I'd never walked a billion miles, had I?

When my mom glanced away, I reached up and furtively undid the necklace again. It was itching. I didn't care if it looked pretty – it wasn't comfortable.

I couldn't be too upset though. My stubby 6-year-old toes were wiggling inside plain, completely flat shoes – I had insisted – and my grubby fingers clutched a worn hardcover to my chest. But I wasn't reading at the moment.

I was listening. I knew I shouldn't waste my precious reading time; after all, my mom had assured my sister and me that once we were older, there would be no more books in the synagogue. We would have to sit and listen for the entire eight-hour service.

I couldn't help but listen, though. This was my favorite part of the service, minus the standing. The chazzanit stood by the podium, floating through a very, very long paragraph. Every few lines, the whole congregation would join in. I tilted my head back and listened, feeling the magic of hundreds of voices mingling as one.

Li Rosh Hashanah teekahta-aymoon … uvi Yom tzom Kippur yichata-aymoon.

“On Rosh Hashanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed.”

Rising above all of the other voices was the chazzanit, her song lingering at the top in a high, pure note.

I didn't know many prayers yet, but I had always been told I had a good memory. And they had repeated it about 10 times. So the next time the line came, I inserted my tiny, warbling voice into the solemn chant.

Li Rosh Hashanah teekahta-aymoon … uvi Yom tzom Kippur yichata-aymoon.

It was the chazzanit's turn again. As she continued, I turned to my mom slowly, eyes shining with awe. “It's beautiful,” I murmured.

She reached out a hand and encompassed the synagogue with a sweep of her arm. The glistening stained glass windows transported from the old synagogue, the wide, flat bima encircled by thinly carpeted steps, the rough stone wall mimicking the Kotel, and the ark; the ark with its tall, graceful wood doors concealing the priceless treasures, the Nair Tamid hanging above, burning eternally. All of this she showed me, and so much more. “Isn't it all?” she whispered.

Isn't it all?


The author's comments:
I was inspired. Enough said.

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This article has 9 comments.


on Sep. 3 2011 at 1:43 pm
Blue4indigo PLATINUM, Sturbridge, Connecticut
24 articles 0 photos 382 comments

Favorite Quote:
I'd rather be sorry for something that I did than for something I didn't do.
-Red Scott

Great job and congrats. You captured the synagouge through a child's eyes so well. I remember the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services I went to as a child... It was magical, and still is. Thank you.

on Feb. 1 2011 at 7:20 pm
OfficialApprover PLATINUM, Orefield, Pennsylvania
48 articles 0 photos 1752 comments

Favorite Quote:
Grab life by the balls. -Slobberknocker
We cannot change the cards we're dealt just how we play the hand
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted
It's pretty easy to be smart when you're parroting smart people
-Randy Pausch

Thank you for the comment! =D Yes, it did.

LastChapter said...
on Feb. 1 2011 at 7:02 pm
LastChapter, Hempstead, New York
0 articles 0 photos 215 comments

Favorite Quote:
(couldn't think of anything better at the time) "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."-Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.

congrats on the publishing! (i know, i'm like a broken record) did your screenname used to be gymbabe?

on Dec. 1 2010 at 6:02 pm
OfficialApprover PLATINUM, Orefield, Pennsylvania
48 articles 0 photos 1752 comments

Favorite Quote:
Grab life by the balls. -Slobberknocker
We cannot change the cards we're dealt just how we play the hand
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted
It's pretty easy to be smart when you're parroting smart people
-Randy Pausch

Same here:) That's what inspired this.

on Dec. 1 2010 at 5:28 pm
SecretNonConformist SILVER, Marblehead, Massachusetts
6 articles 0 photos 195 comments

Favorite Quote:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good men to do nothing."
-Edmund Burke

"Bless the children, give them triumph, now!"
Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers

I actually sing that song every year at my temple as a volunteer! Rosh Hashana is such a beautiful holiday. I'm glad to be a part of the service.

on Nov. 22 2010 at 9:10 pm
OfficialApprover PLATINUM, Orefield, Pennsylvania
48 articles 0 photos 1752 comments

Favorite Quote:
Grab life by the balls. -Slobberknocker
We cannot change the cards we're dealt just how we play the hand
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted
It's pretty easy to be smart when you're parroting smart people
-Randy Pausch

Thanks Tia;D      

on Nov. 22 2010 at 8:59 pm
NeverFallTooHard PLATINUM, Hartford, Wisconsin
24 articles 5 photos 98 comments

Favorite Quote:
Reason is powerless in the expression of Love.~ Rumi
Realisim, in painting, is what one wants to see, not what they really see. ~ Janet Fish

Awwww... that's so pretty... X3 Congratulations, again!

on Nov. 22 2010 at 10:39 am
OfficialApprover PLATINUM, Orefield, Pennsylvania
48 articles 0 photos 1752 comments

Favorite Quote:
Grab life by the balls. -Slobberknocker
We cannot change the cards we're dealt just how we play the hand
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted
It's pretty easy to be smart when you're parroting smart people
-Randy Pausch

Thanks;D          

AsIAm PLATINUM said...
on Nov. 22 2010 at 10:38 am
AsIAm PLATINUM, Somewhere, North Carolina
48 articles 3 photos 606 comments

Favorite Quote:
"According to some, heroic deaths are admirable things. (Generally those who don't have to do it. Politicians and writers spring to mind.) I've never been convinced by this argument, mainly because, no matter how cool, stylish, composed, unflappable, manly, or defiant you are, at the end of the day you're also dead. Which is a little too permanent for my liking." — Jonathan Stroud (Ptolemy's Gate)

Love it! Congrats on the publishing!!!!! :D :D :D