Friday night, during the seudah, Heshy Brucker began making fun of the davening at the Alameda Gardens Ashkenaz shul. “It’s like everyone there was already chazzan or gabbai or
candy man in another shul, and now they’re retired, so the whole thing is just about function,” he said.
Chaim nodded politely, the tip of his beard just a millimeter from the top of the chrein.
Shaindy was in middle of clearing the fish course when her son said this, so she couldn’t protest, but really, it wasn’t that fair. People could come to shul simply to daven, she thought, not everything has to be a circus. People can just quietly do their thing.
Her daughter-in-law Gitty had taken to following her back and forth as she served and cleared, and it took all of Shaindy’s concentration to make that work, to manage another set of hands that was not just completely unnecessary, but also unfamiliar with the entire kitchen setup.
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