Several years ago we added a service for the second day of Rosh Hashana. The other holidays are celebrated for two days outside of Israel and one day there, but Rosh Hashana is celebrated for two days everywhere. The Reform movement follows the Israeli calendar (holding that the reason for the extra day no longer applies), but many Reform congregations eliminate the extra day for Rosh Hashana too. Our rabbi decided (with support from other leaders) that if we say we follow the Israeli calendar we should really do it, hence the second day.

Our second-day service is more intimate than the first-day service, but is still a complete service. Members of the congregation share in leading the service and do the torah-reading. There isn't a big sermon like on the first day, but there's a shorter message.
Over the years some people have told us that this is their favorite service, preferring it over the grand service on the first day.

As expected, turnout is rather lower for the second day. We started in a year where the second day fell on a Sunday and got about 50 people that year; on weekdays attendance is lower. Last year at this service we re-dedicated the chapel after renovations and got an attendance boost. This year, the second day was on a Tuesday.

We had about 80 people. Some were visitors from out of town who came with members, some I didn't know at all, and some sought us out because we're apparently the only local Reform congregation that does this. We got lots of thanks and compliments after the service.

One lesson I take from this: we have got to start advertising this. We offer a service that fills a void no one else is filling, and we do it well. We don't require tickets on the second day; anybody who hears about it is welcome to come. Next year I want to work a little on helping people to hear about it, like we did with our amazingly-successful children's service on the first day. (Last year we outgrew our space, so this year we rented space down the street at the JCC. As long as we were renting a hall anyway, we invited the community -- and got twice as many people as last year.)

Our second-day service is really pretty special. I'm glad we started it.

Somebody asked: how do you prepare and deliver a good torah talk? Where do you start and how do you make it engaging? There are other good answers there too and I encourage you to look; here's what I wrote: Read more…

I'm going to be just a little busy at my synagogue:

Rosh Hashana (RH) evening: help lead one song (sure, easy)

RH morning 1: chant one aliyah of the torah reading (I've done this portion before so it's just review)

RH morning 1: help prevent civilization from breaking down at children's service (after morning service). Apparently I am qualified for this by being a responsible adult who doesn't have kids, and therefore I don't care about the service itself.

RH morning 2: chant one aliyah (assigned a few days ago; need to review)

Yom Kippur (YK) evening: read something I have yet to write on the theme of "ki anu amecha" (the "you are our shepherd / we are your flock" poem). I was specifically asked to do that text.

YK morning (early service): chant haftarah blessings (need to practice the slightly-different text with accompanying melodic changes). I'm not actually going to that service otherwise; I'll slip in during the torah service. Apparently the slightly-different wording/melody scared off the first several people they asked, and they fell back on me (even though I wouldn't otherwise be there) because they knew I would just make the problem go away. :-)

YK morning (later service): help lead our new "ruach" service; this is the minyan-style service that we did for the first time last year largely through my instigation. This year I will add time-points to the post-its I insert into the rabbi's copy of the prayer book. Ahem. (Normally, who cares? But this day is so heavily constrained that we really can't slip.)

YK afternoon: chant one aliyah; read something I've drafted but not yet finished on redemption (also a specific request).

Our rabbis taught: six things are unbecoming for a scholar:

• He should not go abroad scented. R. Sheshet says this applies to his clothes but not his body because perfume hides body odor. There is a dispute about whether hair is like the body or like clothing.

• He should not go out at night alone. This is to avoid suspicion. But he can go out if he has an appointment with his teacher because people will know that.

• He should not go abroad in patched sandals. This applies to the upper but not the sole, and applies when he is in public but not when in a home. Also, this applies only in summer; during the rainy season it's ok.

• He should not converse with a woman in the street. R. Chisda says: not even with his female relatives, because people won't necessarily know they're his relatives.

• He should not take a set meal (meaning one where you recline, apparently) with ignorant people. Why? Because he might be drawn into their ways.

• He should not be the last to enter the beit midrash (study hall). The g'mara does not here address the problem that somebody has to be last. Perhaps "scholar" means only one who is accomplished, and there are always students around who have not reached that level?
  Or perhaps the last two enter together so neither is "the last one". Those are guesses.

Some add that he should not take long strides or carry himself stiffly; the latter is akin to pushing against the heels of the Divine Presence. (43b)

We are not told how a community that doesn't know who his female relatives are would know that he's on his way to study at night.

There's a lot of good discussion in the comments, including about aspirational versus practical rules.

Technically the high-holy-day season began with the first day of the month of Elul a few weeks ago, but some think of it as starting with S'lichot, the recitation of penitential prayers that begins (for Ashkenazim) several days before Rosh Hashana. That was last night.

Until now I had only ever gone to Reform services for this, and this year I was feeling the need to experience something more traditional. My Orthodox shul of choice for such things is Young People's Synagogue, which I've visited a few times on Friday nights. They didn't publish a time for S'lichot on their web site, so I sent email to the president of the congregation to introduce myself and ask. I got a nice, prompt reply welcoming me and giving me the information I needed. He mentioned that Dan Leger would be speaking; Dan is a member of Dor Chadash who I know from the Tree of Life morning minyan (yeah, Pittsburgh is like that), so that was an extra bonus.

The people I met there last night were very nice, and it's the first time I've seen other women there. (Women don't generally come on Friday nights.) I think there were about 25 people there, about 25% women. One man who greeted me said he'd seen a video of me on YouTube, which I wouldn't have expected as a primary search result. (I think it's the only public video that names me, actually.) He didn't mention this journal, which I would have thought to be the more-likely search result. But I just checked Google, and wow have things changed: the video is #2, my user page on Mi Yodeya is #3, and this journal is #4. (Someone else from there visited this journal after I wrote about them another time, BTW. If any of y'all are reading this, hi!)

Dan's talk was enlightening but doesn't summarize well (now, at least). After the talk and some Q&A, the service began. The service was in a small booklet just labelled "S'lichoth" (or maybe "Selichoth") from Birnbaum. I'd like a copy of this service but Amazon and Google are failing me, so it's probably out of print. I assume I can find the traditional liturgy in several other places, including as part of some machzorim, though the smaller stand-alone format is nice. Suggestions welcome; a complete and reliable English translation is an important feature. (No transliteration please; I don't need it and it takes up space.)

As I expected, the service was all in Hebrew. I was running about 25% on comprehension (with some 100% passages that I know from other places, including the Yom Kippur service and torah), so I switched between the Hebrew and English as needed. The chazan did a good job of signaling where he was, and somebody occasionally called out page numbers. (I wonder if that's usual or was for my benefit (visitor of unknown skill).)

Even with my imperfect understanding, I found I was really engaging with the traditional liturgy. The melodies for the sung parts were easy to pick up, and those parts tended to be the ones where I knew what the words meant, which certainly helped. I had not previously realized that the traditional liturgy repeats the list of divine attributes more than once; that provided "mileposts" in the service the way the kaddishes do in other services. Each time through the context was a little different and it seemed like my reaction should be a little different (and would be, with practice and fluency). The service had a level of gravitas that I've found lacking in other s'lichot services I've been to, without feeling overdone.

After the service I was chatting with someone while helping to clean up the nosh from earlier, and after asking about Yom Tov services I was given a bulletin listing all their upcoming events. My congregation joins together with another for festival morning services; Sukkot will be at their place and I'm not sure I really want to walk two miles each way for that. YPS is just down the street and seems like a friendly place. The "main" service (for any day) is the morning one and I have a Shabbat morning minyan I'm very attached to, so Sukkot is an opportunity to visit them when much of their community will be there. They've invited me to come, and I plan to accept that invitation.

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Community-anthropology notes for my own future reference: More than one man who greeted me offered me a handshake. All women were wearing skirts/dresses, but some had short sleeves. Some hats, some not.