January 2nd.

Have decided I will not be going to second day services. (well, beyond Maariv, which I went to last night...).

Mostly because I simply hate being in services all day. There, I totally admit that that's one of the main motives driving this decision.


But also because, being a child of the Reform movement, when I was growing up it did not even occur to me there existed a "Second Day" of Rosh Hashana. So to celebrate what I didn't know even existed until like two years ago with the same amount of dedication (whatever that amount is) as I celebrate something that I have ALWAYS known existed and that I have always celebrated seems a little ridiculous to me. I guess you could argue that I'm basically suggesting that we should only love what is familiar and anything that is foreign to us should be rejected. No no no, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that celebrating the second day of Rosh Hashana would feel to me the same as pretending to be Muslim or Asian or some other race or religion or ethnicity or whatever for the day.

I mean, even though I didn't grow up celebrating Simchat Torah or Sukkot or basically any other holiday besides Yom Kippur and occasionally Passover, I at least KNEW that these things existed, that these things were out there to be celebrated. I just didn't. Now I celebrate those things here at school, which has always felt a little "forced" to me, but it doesn't seem as forced as celebrating a holiday (the second day of Rosh Hashana) that I didn't even know existed. Call me a bad Jew, but I just don't really give a crap about the second day. It's like, who the hell cares about January 2nd?