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If you downloaded or read "Days of Awe - Mi Yodeya?," we would love to hear what you thought of it.

  • Are there any improvements you'd suggest?

  • Is there anything about it you specifically hope we don't change?

  • Do you have any interesting stories about using it to enhance your holidays?

Anything you can tell us along these lines would be much appreciated. The next time we make a publication like this one, your feedback here will help us make it even better.

For that matter, what holiday should we do next? We've now done Passover, Purim, Chanukah, and the Days of Awe.

If you have participated on Mi Yodeya before, you should be able to post your feedback as an answer to this question. If not, or if you prefer to send it in private, please email [email protected].

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Blog post promoting Days of Awe - Mi Yodeya? and the rest of our publications: http://dafaleph.com/home/2015/8/18/days-of-awe-by-mi-yodeya and followup Tweet.

Reported by Isaac.

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Here's what 1400 copies of Days of Awe - Mi Yodeya? looks like.

The copies were printed by Staples, and I am very happy with their quality, price, online ordering system, and customer service.

Seven open boxes, full of "Days of Awe - Mi Yodeya?" booklets

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  • Isaac. I didn't realize that you're based in Baltimore, which is not that far from NYC area. Had I known, I might have travelled down for a day or so to assist you with this. So, next time you have a huge manual task like this, if you give me a week or two notice, please contact me. Sound good? BTW, Staples is a great choice. They do good printing work and they're reasonable, too.
    – DanF
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 19:52
  • I'm in Silver Spring, outside DC. Thanks for the offer; I'll certainly keep it in mind. If you ever come through the DC area, I'd love to meet you.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 20:14
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I think the hard copies should arrive at my home today or tomorrow. I downloaded the file and scanned through most of it, last week.

I can't honestly give it a huge rave for its contents as I really have to sit and read through much more of it. So, I will defer a huge applause for that, if OK, with you.

But, I give an enormous applause for all your efforts in producing it, from the compiling, editing, fund-collecting, organizing, mailing, etc. This is an amazing effort and a true example of how teamwork, but more impressively online / remote team work with no formal management, and so forth really can and does work. I only wish that your example would work this well in corporates and even more in government! All of you should run for U.S. Senate or Congress, and we'd actually get things accomplished efficiently!

I'm hesitant to ask for your secret in how you did this so quickly, b/c then it won't be a secret, anymore. In short, terrific job and with the New Year, I wish that Hashem should add more strength and brachot so that you can achieve even better communal projects in the future.

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    Thanks! Berachot to you, too! There is no secret. Pretty much every step of the process has been documented or discussed here on Meta in the days-of-awe-project tag and/or in the project chat room.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 20:12
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    To amplify what Isaac said, just about the only aspects of the project that weren't handled in public were the ones involving personal information like mailing addresses, donors who wanted to remain anonymous, bank-account info for fund transfers, and so on. We intended to do publicly everything that could be public, and I think we succeeded. (When the last few expenses are settled there will be a financial accounting.)
    – Monica Cellio Mod
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 1:21
  • Bravo! How about making and selling M.Y. T and sweatshirts? (During the year)?
    – DanF
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 1:47
  • @DanF, we're pretty much not allowed to.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Aug 31, 2015 at 18:44
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    @IsaacMoses Update - the heavy box came about 2 weeks ago. I am experimenting with my own shul which is "Conservadox". We're placing 50 on the credenza outside the shul on the 1st day to see how many will take it. Hopefully, it will be successful enough that I will need to replenish the 2nd day and perhaps on Yom Kippur. I'm reserving about 100 for another shul in my neighborhood. I'll let you know what happens with both. Have a great Yom Tov!
    – DanF
    Commented Sep 11, 2015 at 18:42
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We received the following note via email this morning:

Good morning found your booklet in shul this am for high holidays looks wonderful! Took a few for fellow congregates in another location. Wonderful website as well. Thank you for what you do.

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I put a few copies out at my shul. At the end of Rosh Hashanah, there was only one left! As i mentioned in chat, i prompted a bunch of people. Due to a) the setup of the pamphlet-holder (i could not come up with a word for it all of chag!) and b) the fact that i did it kind of last-minute, i wasn't able to put up a sign, but i still mentioned my involvement in it, and had similar results as Monica (i.e. people were more inclined to take).

Several people said something like "this is really cool" after looking at it for a minute. I had one person who came back to me the next day to give more involved feedback. He said that there was a lot of interesting content; many questions he hadn't even thought of. He gave his favorite Q&A as the one on using an apple. (Related - a pun slipped through in an answer there.)

Overall, people seemed pleased with the books, and impressed that i (17yo) helped put it together and distributed.

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The book has been popular in my Reform congregation so far. I had thought that 50 copies would be plenty; the first 40 were gone by the end of Rosh Hashana and almost 20 more were gone after Shabbat Shuva. (There were two left when last I saw the pile.) I'll be dropping off more on Monday morning, in time for Yom Kippur.

I've heard a lot of positive feedback, including some from people I wouldn't have thought would be interested (nice!). The rabbi has publicly praised the book, and I heard that somebody who picked one up on the first day of Rosh Hashana used it somehow at his meal that night. (I don't know what that consisted of; I haven't yet had the opportunity to speak with him.)

I think two things enticed people to pick them up:

  • I accompanied the books with a sign saying "a gift from Monica Cellio (please take one)" instead of just putting out the stack.

  • When I made an announcement to the minyan I emphasized my personal involvement in the site and the project.

I'd actually put out the sign so that people would realize they were meant to be taken, as opposed to, say, being a stack of material for an upcoming beit midrash or something. Once I was making a sign I figured I should personalize it. And that worked.

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  • Aha! Now we know your real name!
    – msh210 Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2015 at 20:54
  • What, you didn't before? Or, alternatively, you'll trust this account but not my profile? :-)
    – Monica Cellio Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2015 at 20:56
  • I mean, you put "Monica Cellio" on the sign in your temple, so presumably it's your real name.
    – msh210 Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2015 at 20:57
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    Well, I said I did. If you had put a sign out with yours you might have told us you wrote "a gift from msh210", but that might not be exactly what you actually wrote...
    – Monica Cellio Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2015 at 21:01
  • Oh, darn, you're right. We'll just have to keep guessing, then.
    – msh210 Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2015 at 21:26
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Here are some paraphrased or quoted bits of praise for Days of Awe - Mi Yodeya? that I heard from various family members (so you may take them with a family-sized grain of salt).

  • Enhanced my holiday.

  • Flows even better that your previous publications.

  • The academic in me really appreciates all the citations of sources. I'm sure the authors are all very nice and trustworthy, but I don't know them, so I like seeing that if I want to check on their sources, I can.

  • You saved my Rosh Hashana. I would have been so bored in shul if not for Mi Yodeya.

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