Huff, Puff, you could NEVER blow this sukkah down plus a trip to the big Buddha (Sunday)

We had a full house this morning for sukkot. I was up at 3 am thinking about packing, and so I did. And then, eventually, when it was a more reasonable hour, I went to the chapel for the Big Sukkah Party! What was so cool for me is while we were having our Sukkah party outside in the back of the chapel the Protestant service was ending and the Gospel service was about to begin. We were all walking around and doing our thing, but I found something really gorgeous about all of these events happening at the same time.

We had a great time. The tradition in our chavera growing up was we would make origami paper cranes to hang in the sukkah. I do not know why we did this or where it started (Deb?) but I was happy to bring it to Japan where it felt ever so fitting to be making paper cranes. People really seemed to get into it and then all of a sudden, there were almost twenty people there-kids too-filling the sukkah. We had a great lunch and made a beautiful, beautiful sukkah. But the most beautiful part was the scene with all the people there, together, hanging out, being Jewish, eating a great meal (what more Jewish thing is there to do?)

The afternoon sadly drew to a close and there were many goodbyes. Then, the Shlessingers (Karen and Craig-the kids were working-one at a job and one at school work) brought me up to Kamakura, home of the big Buddha. On the way there, we saw a street fair and we stopped by. We were treated to tastes, sights and sounds from Okinowa.

Kamakura is just wonderful. I had that great moment where I said to myself, oh my goodness, I am in Kamakura, Japan. It was a pinch me moment.

The Buddha was so serene. It really blew me away. It was so big-SO BIG-and so peaceful. Just looking at it made me feel very tranquil. And it was SO BIG. Apparently, this is only the third largest Buddha in Japan. Did I mention how big this Buddha was??

We toured around and then made our way to one of the temples. There are temples and shrines everywhere. Interestingly enough, the Conji for Temple is an identical symbol to the swastika. Hey, their language is older…and I doubt the Nazi’s borrowed from the Japanese…but one never does know.

We had to trek up a rather steep side street to make it to the shrine. It was another totally peaceful place. There is something about a way of life built on such peace as its backbone.

We made our way back to Yokosuka where we met up with Cidney (the working daughter) for sushi go round. Cidney loves sushi and each time we have gone, she has not been able to make it. It has been a running conversation throughout the trip-getting Cidney and I together for sushi. I was so happy we finally made that happen.

After more yum sushi, (my third time at this particular superashi establishment), Cidney took me to sticky pics. You know the photo booths at the mall? We this is the same thing, but Japanese style. Basically, you pose for all of these shots against a blue wall and you are blue screened in to different back grounds. Then you get to decorate them with their computers and then, voila! Stickie pics! They are great, I will show them all to everyone when I am back.

And now, back in the BOQ. I am all packed up (delayed by a brief scare when I could not find my cell phone, but catastrophe averted-it turned up) and now I am watching the Italian Job and just hanging out.

I am looking for the nechemta, the conclusion, to all of this. This will take me a long time to put together, take apart, and put together again. I think the conclusion is something I read in thei Adin Steinsaltz article that Andrew lent me. The richness of life comes from the struggle and that we have come to overvalue the mundane and ordinary (and safe) which ultimately deadens us to living life-really LIVING life. I think Steinsaltz is right and of course there has to be a balance. When I was preparing to leave for Japan, I had that moment (those moments) where I wished I had not gotten myself into this because then I had to go and live this experience. And, like all the other crazy things that I do (and for those of you who may not know me so well...I do a LOT of crazy) I am so grateful that I did it.

But this one was different than many of the others...This one I really got to enjoy along the way, in the living of it, not just in its memory or in the joy of being able to say, yeah, I did that. (although, there is a lot of fun in being able to say that too :) ) I really feel like this time I was here for the right reasons and to do something so far beyond myself (most my other adventures have really been much more about my own entertainment). This was about something important, something I believe in. There is something truly powerful about all of this.

I do not know if I want to activate and go in to the Navy. But when I hear people talk about how desperate the need is for Jewish chaplains ( have met so many people who have said, oh my goodness, I wish there was a Rabbi here all the time or I wish I had met a Rabbi before now or other such comments about how they have suffered being without Jewish, spiritual leadership) I find it hard to even care about what my reasons are for maybe not wanting to do this. The need is so great.

Signing off until New York...

Sheol…shul…same thing, right? (Saturday)

My favorite little moment today was when one of the kids reading Jonah changed the sentence from “We would rather go down into Sheol than harm this man” (meaning Jonah) to we would rather go down to Shul than harm this man.”

Services were great. I have been thinking about how to blog this and I realized, I can’t. I do not know how to bring the outside world in to the High Holy Day experience.

I did have an incredible internal experience. Fasting and leading services at the same time makes me worried. Can I do it? Will I have the energy to carry it off?...HOW will I have the energy to carry it off? And it was clear to me during services where it comes from. I was channeling my high holy day experiences from my upbringing. I could hear the congregation I grew up in singing in harmony around me. I could hear the voice of my cantor in my head singing all of the liturgy I was singing, when I did the Priestly blessing, I could feel the arms and tallitot of my parents and brother around me, and when I was unsure of what to do, I felt the support of other important people in my life. It was pretty cool. I missed everyone. Being here is wonderful and it is far from home, far from the people I love. Being away on the holy days is tough.

No regret that I am here, it is just also true that I miss my home.

And on that note…I am so not ready to leave here. Last night at break fast, they presented me with a Yokosuka T-shirt and a sionara doll. She is a purple doll with a scroll wrapped around it-it is like Japanese art meets Torah scroll. It is wonderful. People got to sign it and I get to bring this beautiful doll home to display on my shelf and forever remember my time here.

On Sunday, we will be having a Sukkah Party. You will LOVE this sukkah. The CBs (Construction Builders) built it. It is a 16x16’ structure in front of a statue of Mary built out of 4x4 solid lumber. The guys who built it did so on their free time which was such a gift. The greatest part was trying to explain to the Petty Officer First Class in charge of this project what exactly a sukkah is. Explaining Judaism to the outside world is sometimes very strange…

After the sukkah party, the Shlessingers will be taking me to Kamakura, home of the Big Buddha and other beautiful ancient sites. Then back here for lots and lots of packing.

Monday is all business checking out and Captain Weed (the Commanding Officer for the whole base) has requested to see me again before I go. Lunch, check out of the BOQ and catching a bus up to Narita for the long flight home.

I hope everyone’s fasts are ending well. You are all almost there and I am thinking of you.

Shana Tova to all.

Strange: my fast has begun while it is just a Friday for you-(Friday)

I cannot even remember what I did today, sitting here in my BOQ after Neila, the opening services of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year.

I am a liturgy cynic. I admit it. I have been, for quite a while, struggling to connect to the liturgy. I will not share the details here and now, but the bottom line is, it has not been working for me. But Yom Kippur is different. I still have the first naivety that Dr. Larry Hoffman teaches about in his liturgy class. When it comes to Yom Kippur, I still believe in fairies, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. I buy in to the whole construct of judgment and longing for forgiveness. It just speaks to me.

So tonight, we had a beautiful festive meal. I was swept up in a very healthy sense of magnitude (which feels something like anxiety, but without the negative) before the service. I needed…wanted…that moment alone in my office before going off to lead this community in prayer.

I preached ,we prayed. We all prayed, even me in my way. It is not the same majestic kind of part of something bigger sort of prayer experience I used to have when I was a kid. It feels more like saying a whole lot of words I really believe in. It is something like the feeling I have when I hear certain songs which, for reasons I can never explain, speak to some piece of my very soul.

It felt like such an incredible privilege to stand before these people and get to lead them through these prayers. I felt very humble, very small and very prayerful that I could succeed at the task. After services in general, people often (hopefully for all of us) say, oh the Rabbi lead a lovely service, but as a prayer leader, I reject it. I do not think I did much. The words are there. I did not create them, nor did I pick them. Our sages gave us a lovely service. Our prayer book editors created beautiful translations and readings. Our communities provide an energy and a life to the words. I know I have a role in this, I am not saying I am nothing, but I am just one small piece. The smallest piece. I feel like the conductor or director or chief engineer. I am just helping to put all the gears and cogs together in a fluid way. The hardest work is done by everyone else. I think my role just looks scary…well, I guess, kind of…it is.

What I want to say, it is not that the Rabbi does it or does it alone. We all do it. All of us over all of time and space do it.

I am about to go to bed now. For all of you who are now or who will be participating in the Yom Kippur experience, I pray you will each and every one of you have the strength to do your part, to do it well, and to do it with kavanah and meaning.

Tzom Kal (Easy Fast) Gamar Chatimah Tova (May you be granted a good inscription in the book of life) and Shana Tova (Happy New Year)

With love and thinking of each of you,

Rachael

Kol Nidrei Sermon

I wish I had a way to send a recording of the tune to which I am referring. If you want to hear it, please post or email me and I will send it to you. Many thanks to Rabbi Larry Hoffman for this gem which he taught our class right before the High holy Day break. He, like this teaching, is a treasure and a real gift.

Remember that tune we learned last week? Well there is more I want to tell you about it. Not only is it the music of the holy days, it is the holy days. We begin with the upbeat-ya dai dai dai dai dai dai dai

This is Rosh Hashanah. According to two recently ordained HUC rabbis, the prayers for the New Year are all about birth and when the earth was conceived. If we remember, we repeated again and again, this is the birthday of the world! A major part of the day was the blowing of the shofar. Traditionally, on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, we read about another birth; that of Isaac’s. According to some of the Rabbis, the sound of the shofar is the sound of a mother’s birth pangs and the tekiyah gdolah is the sound of the final push of setting new life off into the world.

Then we have the ten days in between-dai DAI dai dai dai dai dai…These reflect a condensed life lived, hopefully, righteously. These days give us the opportunity to think about and act on our ideal life of how we would want to live.

And then we move to Yom Kippur di di di di daidididi dai (2x) which is much more somber and sad. Yom Kippur is about our death. You know how people say, what if this was the last day of my life? I wonder what I would do, how I would feel? Well, we, as Jews, have the opportunity to practice the last day of our life once a year. We fast and tomorrow we will stand for a long time. By the end of the day, it feels like you are dead. Many people wear white-the same as a burial shroud. Some do not bathe or brush teeth. It is as if our bodies do not exist. We feel and look tired, haggard and worn out.

In a few moments, we will rise, remove the Torah from the ark and begin the confession of our sins. Staring at the empty ark is like staring into an empty coffin. We get to ask ourselves the question, what if I did die today? What if this was the last day of my life? Have I really lived? Have I lived like I wanted to? Put liturgy, our sages, our day are giving us this chance to ask this question and it is up to you to seek out the answers

But the tune does not end there. Dai dai dai dai, di didi dai dai DAI! We end on this high note. The liturgy has us say the Vidui or confession where we hit out chest and in the Al chet,we have sinned against you, twice. In these prayers we confess our sins. We say both prayers in all of the services we do except the last one; Neila, the closing service tomorrow evening. In that service we only say the vidui or confessional, not al chet, we have sinned against you. In the closing service we add a new prayer where we say that God will reach out a hand. The liturgy tells us, God does not want us to continue to beat ourselves up for what we have done. We have repented enough. It is time to move on to our chance to live the lives we have envisioned, to be the ideal we strive to be.

The message is this: We are creatures that were born and creatures who will die. The ten days of repentance are a condensed life. We end Yom Kippur with a tekiyah gdolah; the long loud shofar blast. This is the sound of our rebirth; a life after our death.

Super Rashi! In Japanese means Wicked Good-(Thursday)

I spent the day doing work from room and nursing my vaguely irritated sinuses. I went to sushi-go-round at the Daiei station with Chaplain Ross and we had a great time eating lots of different kinds of sushi and chatting about life, religion, calling etc.

This evening, Ben, Ashley, Rachel and Gus Bennet from the USS McCain (Ben's Ship) and I all went out to the "great Thai restaurant." Everyone raves about it and for good reason. It's the one across the street from TGIFridays (always a good reference point) and around the corner from the Yakotori stand where you can fresh off the grill chicken innards (mmmmm).

It was, as always, a magnificent adventure. Just watch the video...


For dessert we had pink and green. They tasted like pink and green...these are liquid cups with little seeds (something like black sesame seeds suspended in jelly) and tiny ice cubes.

Several times over dinner someone exclaimed, "What am I eating?" Mostly it was me.



After, we went to the Chu Hai stand for some Chu Hai which is a drink made from sho chu (a rice liquor) with ice and flavored with one of 31 syrups. We had coconut, pulum (plum) Culumberry (Cranberry) and blueberry (blueberry) :) They were yummy. It seems like a very Japanese scene. You stand at the stand because you cannot walk around with drinks, hang out and have your chu hai.

And now, here I am, back in the Q




Tomorrow is the big day-Erev yom kippur.
was feeling complacentI think I am ready to conclude the interim days of the High Holy Days. I about where I am in my life and then one good conversation with Andrew later and I feel effectively (as in the conversation had a big effect), powerfully, profoundly and thankfully turned upside down and more aware than ever of the work I need to do to move my self ahead towards being a better human being. Thanks, Honey, as always!


Shana Tova, Tzom Kal and Gamar Chatimah Tova

Like Box Seats for the Red Sox-Yankees World Series (Wednesday)

Today I did three totally different a totally wonderful things (but my camera broke so I have no images to send with….I’m working on fixing it, I am hoping it is just the battery).

1) Toured the Blue Ridge which is 7^th fleet command central and it is a small mobile city. You name it, it is on it! I received two very different tours (due to a small miscommunication, but nothing tragic) and got to meet another Jewish officer who works in the bridge and showed me all the cool bridge stuff.

2) 7^th fleet command chaplain, Captain Lea, drove me to Atsugi Naval Air Base so I could meet up with Chaplain Doug Rosander, my teacher from Newport training this past summer. I got to see him and his wife. I also got to meet other chaplains, one of the RPs, a Jewish chief who worked in weather and one of the Jewish wives, who I had already met at services in Yokosuka, at a lovely lunch at the Atsugi Officer’s Club. After lunch, Chief Katz brought us up to the roof of the weather building to watch the planes land.

It is not just watching planes land, but the 7^th fleet air wing returning from a six month deployment aboard the USS Kitty Hawk which is returning to port at Yokosuka on Friday. The planes fly off the ship first and return home. They fly back in formation and land in this incredible sequence. We had the best seats in the house from atop that building. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

After, I went with Chaplain Rosander and his wife for a tour of the chapel and we just got to spend some time catching up. Being so far from home, just knowing that this person that I know from home was here has been great-getting to actually see the two of themand be together for a bit was really a gift from Chaplain Lea and I am grateful.

3) Dinner with the questioning; And then I met up for dinner with a young man with questions about Judaism. I do not know how to recap the experience. I felt like I had an evening of being a Rabbi, of really being there for this man. I walked away feeling grateful for all the moments in my life prior to now-good and bad-which have shaped me into who I am which allowed me to be someone in someone else’s life at an important moment in a seemingly important way.

Today was a blessing.

I am beat-exhausted and the tiredest girl ever!

Help Wanted

If anyone reading is interested in participating in a mitzvah project...I got a great one for you. The Jewish community here would love some supporters. Anyone out there want to help support them? Maybe send some care packages at the holidays? Maybe be contact people as they have questions? Anything else you and they can think of-to work together and partner together on?

Be in touch...
Rachael