devarim

About an hour ago, I was drawn out of my chair and onto our balcony by the sound of children? women? chanting and singing in Hebrew. I couldn't quite make out the words, but it sounded vaguely more or less like a kumsitz* so I smiled and bounced happily in the night air for a few moments, called Julian outside, and then bounced some more. I imagined a group of teens getting together for an end of the school year celebration, though I hadn't heard of any such thing planned by any of the local Jewish schools.

When the singing ended (after they morphed through a couple of niggunim [wordless melodies]) I heard a bit of laughter, followed by scattered shouts of: "Are you Jewish?" Now, of course, I just had to find out what was going on. I prodded Julian into putting on a sweater and some shoes (as for myself, I was already in PJs, and in an earlier life I would have gone just like that but apparently marriage has made me dignified, so I threw on some jeans, a sweater, and a hat) and away we went. Of course, by the time we had managed to get out of the building, down the block, and around the corner to the elementary school where the singing was (probably) coming from, whatever crowd had been there had already dispersed.

On our hurried walk, though, we saw a chasid (I couldn't identify the sect, sorry) walking down Harvard Street in the other direction. And across the street from the school was an empty yellow school bus. From "Yeshiva Bais Chaya Mushka." Numbered 770.**

Now, Julian doesn't think that a bunch of good chassidishe (OK, chabadnike) schoolgirls would be outside singing, and he's probably right, but I don't the bus just happened to be there by coincidence, either. We walked up and down a few blocks but could find no evidence of either the chabadnike schoolgirls or the ethereal campfire singers. And so my night ends, mystery unsolved.

-=-

* A somewhat impromptu camp-like gathering, for singing of Jewish or Zionistic songs, chanting, and possibly guitar- or drum-playing.

** OK, maybe I'm just having a lazy day, but I don't feel like explaining this either. Chabad. Rebbe. Schneerson. Moshiach. 770. Google it.