September 26, 2006

Power Off, Power On

Our power went out. Our power went on. Just your ordinary, everyday blackout.

BGE has a useful page with details on their current power outages. Which is completely and totally useless to you if your power is off.

And now back to your regularly scheduled evening.

Posted by Greg at September 26, 2006 10:56 PM in | TrackBack
Comments

Mine did, too. It was out for just long enough for me to grope for a flashlight, realize it had no batteries, use my cellphone to make my way downstairs, find batteries, make it back upstairs where I forgot the flashlight, and then go back on. Weird thing is that you guys didn't have electricity either but I saw that across the street from me did.

Posted by: Lara at September 27, 2006 5:39 AM

Haha, that is so stupid. Sometimes I wonder about BGE . . .

Posted by: Elise at September 27, 2006 9:30 AM

I was davening at shomrei 9:45PM Maariv/slichos and the power went out. Everyone crowded around the shul emergency lights for slichos. I think maybe this was a sign from above not to skip certain slichos, as is the custom at this minyan. Ironically the power came back on as soon as slichos was over.

Posted by: Cubicle King at September 27, 2006 9:42 AM

that's wierd Lara...we had...it seems that it just hit certain houses (sounds like makas choshech???)

Posted by: bubby across from Lara at September 27, 2006 2:20 PM

There's maariv at 9:45 before the selichos?

Posted by: Jewboy at September 27, 2006 2:36 PM

Jewboy, yes.

Posted by: aishel at September 27, 2006 11:36 PM

Me'inyan l'inyan b'oso inyan...
Anyone care to start a thread on the practice of 10 PM slichos given the strong opposition by most classical poskim to reciting selichos (esp. yud-gimmel midos) before chatzos? I've always been tempted to go at night since I'm usually up anyway, but I can't bring myself to look for shortcuts during the yemei hadin (i.e. I ain't from the biggest tzadikim most of the year). Anyone able to provide a printed reference for a hetter?

Posted by: Reb Plony Almony at September 28, 2006 12:06 PM

I've always thought you're better off doing it at 10PM than doing it after sunrise.

The bigger issue, at least in my mind, is how anyone does nefilas a'paim either at night (on the first night) or early in the morning before sunrise. One is not supposed to do nefilas apaim after shkiah.

Posted by: Greg at September 28, 2006 12:10 PM

Greg- SH"A O"C 581:1 "nohagim lakum b'ashmores", MB "d'sof halayla HKB"H shut b'olam hazeh v'hu eis ratzon."
See also the Shaarei Teshuvo there - sheyesh mekomos sheomrim selichos b'arvis, yishtakea hadovor, sheain rauy l'hazkir yud-gimmel midos ki im b'ais ratzon...ayen sham b'arichus.

I don't recall seeing a problem with saying selichos after neitz. The bigger neitz problem to my mind is actually an alos hashachar issue - alos was at 5:40 today (sunrise minus 16.1 degrees), so if you were davening at the first minyan at Shomrei that began at 5:45, and had washed negel vasser at home; you would be chayav to wash again after alos.

I will bli neder look for a mekor not to say selichos after neitz. The only thing that comes to mind al regel achas is the MB who writes that on Erev RH we include nefilas apayim at the end of selichos even though sometimes they don't finish until after neitz, which is only a backhanded way of saying it's OK.
When I was in E"Y, chatzos was around 11 or 11:30 and I went to say selichos at night several times.

Posted by: RPA at September 28, 2006 5:25 PM

Greg-

I'm glad you didn't suffer too much from the power outage. I'm also curious about the source for the 10 PM slichos - I've never seen anything in the poskim in favor of it and it's usually quite condemned. I hope to have time to look it up over Shabbbos, along with everything else waiting for then!
Gmar chasima tova! Regards to the family and kids (esp. Ezra from you-know-who!).

Posted by: Ari at September 28, 2006 9:50 PM