Temple Tickets
Anyone see Curb Your Enthusiasm last night?
I haven't (yet), but I'm listening to Stern and they're anticipating the High Holydays by talking about the concept of "Temple Tickets." Apparently, Larry David scalped them on HBO.
For the unawares, most synagogues are built with movable walls to accommodate the influx of the faithful for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur -- the former begins tonight at sundown. Many temples unable to build spaces big enough to meet the twice-a-year demand do crowd-control by charging membership dues to congregants, and with each rising membership level come more Temple Tickets for the High Holydays services. (And the more you give, the closer you get to the Sanctuary.)
Now, these aren't GA tickets, people. Temple staffers take months to carve out exact seating charts, making sure they avoid seating squabbling families near each other, etc. It's a fine art, and as with any eminent organizer, a High Holydays seating artist is a blessing.
Could you ever imagine anything like this for our kind, for Christmas or Easter? Well, then again, "pewholding" isn't canonically valid anymore -- but I do know of parishes which ticket for Midnight Mass. And of course, you have ordinations and the like, which are ticketed and invite-only. But the latter aren't the biggest events of the year.
I don't know if we have any Jewish readers here, but just in case we do, Shana Tovah to you and yours. May the New Year bring all health, happiness -- and fantastic Temple Tickets.
-30-
I haven't (yet), but I'm listening to Stern and they're anticipating the High Holydays by talking about the concept of "Temple Tickets." Apparently, Larry David scalped them on HBO.
For the unawares, most synagogues are built with movable walls to accommodate the influx of the faithful for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur -- the former begins tonight at sundown. Many temples unable to build spaces big enough to meet the twice-a-year demand do crowd-control by charging membership dues to congregants, and with each rising membership level come more Temple Tickets for the High Holydays services. (And the more you give, the closer you get to the Sanctuary.)
Now, these aren't GA tickets, people. Temple staffers take months to carve out exact seating charts, making sure they avoid seating squabbling families near each other, etc. It's a fine art, and as with any eminent organizer, a High Holydays seating artist is a blessing.
Could you ever imagine anything like this for our kind, for Christmas or Easter? Well, then again, "pewholding" isn't canonically valid anymore -- but I do know of parishes which ticket for Midnight Mass. And of course, you have ordinations and the like, which are ticketed and invite-only. But the latter aren't the biggest events of the year.
I don't know if we have any Jewish readers here, but just in case we do, Shana Tovah to you and yours. May the New Year bring all health, happiness -- and fantastic Temple Tickets.
-30-
posted by Rocco Palmo at 10:21
1 Comments:
Rembert Weakland stated in an article of his that he came from a poor family that could not afford pew rents in their local parish, so they were shunted off to the side or the back. I was surprised to learn that they were still in existence at that time, and apparently much later per Jimmy Mac.
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