Beth Shalom one year in

Last August I left my previous synagogue, which had just voted to merge with another and move out of the neighborhood, and joined Beth Shalom, the large Conservative synagogue in Squirrel Hill. This has been a great move for me. Shabbat morning services feel very comfortable, with a lot of singing. Most of the service is led by lay people and there are melodic and style variations; this feels interesting, not disruptive. I'm not fluent in everything yet but I'm getting there. I aspire to leading the torah service, probably the most accessible place to start. (It's also what they have b'nei mitzvah do, so I'm probably not the only person who sees it that way.) Beth Shalom gets a lot more people on Shabbat morning than my previous minyan. I worried about getting lost in the sea of people, especially as someone who is, uh, not socially adept in crowds. But Beth Shalom also has a sit-down kiddush, every week, and the mere act of sitting at a table with about seven or eight other people…