And God Laughs (Wednesday evening)

(One of the kids and I hanging dressing the ark in her High Holy Day Whites)

Don’t be alarmed by the title of this posting. Erev Rosh Hashanah Services for the Jewish community at the Chapel of Hope in Yokosuka, Japan were quite successful-just incredibly different from what I had planned.

Important to note: The chapel of hope closes at 8:00 pm everyday so that the beloved RP’s can have a definitive end point to their day and go home and spend some time with their families. As it should be.

We were a group of 18 including one baby, one kindergartener, four middle schoolers, and one high school senior. We started with a dinner at 5:30 which actually started at 5:45…ish. Dinner was lovingly prepared by some of the community members during the day (including one professional chef) today and it was outstanding! We had homemade challot, wine which Aleph had sent along, Fuji apples from Fuji, honey, chicken, rice salad, green salad carrots, fruit salad three different cakes and a noodle kugel to die for!

Services were slated for 6:30 but really did not start until 6:55…ish. J Everyone was cleaning up, it was a great time. The camaraderie amongst this group of people was so good and so joyous and so playful, I was not concerned about what time services started. It felt wonderful to have a group of Jews coming together and being Jewish-just enjoying one another. Prayer will happen, fellowship can be questionable.

"Really, we're a chavura" Chavurat Chapel of Hope in action doing the post dinner dishes

So I had to, on the fly, cut twenty or so minutes out f my service. Ok. That happens. The big realization I have been rehaving all week is how to balance the tension between the formality of the holy days and the informality of this group? Two people in the group are looking into converting at some point in the future. Two out of 18 were under the age of 4. That leaves 14 people who may or may not know the tunes and the liturgy and I do not like to run a solo act or perform people’s prayers for them. When I began leading, I knew quickly that if I wanted to “stick to the tradition” and keep the tunes and melodies of this season, I would be singing alone. (Tomorrow, I will teach them the tunes) Services tonight sounded more like Shabbat than Rosh Hashanah but I cannot imagine anyone minded (or that God minded) every sound emanating from that room was from the heart and that matters more than anything else.

I opened the service with my own personal prayer for the year (yes, it will be posted here). I then invited everyone to think about their prayer and add it at the end. We were praying along and when we hit the first group reading, I heard the congregant drone. So, I said something about making the text come alive through our own words and feelings.

We got almost to the Amidah before the next impromptu switch; I asked everyone to join me in a reading and suddenly I was reading with only one other person. As I read on, I considered this reality. I knew I had a new prayer book and so did the one guy reading…Yup, we had the 2007 version of Machzor Chadash and everyone else had the 1922 with the gender insensitive language and the male God imagery and the messianic vision for the future. Mid service, I asked for a new book and I was leading out of two books at once. That was fun.

The best part is everyone was humored by the whole experience.

Then the most humbling parts. After Amidah, I asked people to talk about their personal prayers with those around them and then to share with the group. People said wonderful things-praying for the safety of others, the pre-K girl said she wanted to learn to not fight and not be bad (my favorite prayer), prayers for patience, energy, a clean slate and so one. People shared, people talked, people prayed. This was the best service I have ever attended let alone lead, in so many ways. It was alive, it was organic and it was real. Any illusions of pomp and ceremony were long gone after the first 12 minutes.

I do not know if that was prayer or community or God or all things together. It was great, it was exciting, ut was unscripted and it was fun.

And then the mourner’s kaddish. And the tears from one woman. And the prayer ended with the giggles of the four month old baby. And that was life right there in a nut shell. We mourn the losses and life goes on in joy and glory and laughter (God willing).

We got through the whole thing by 7:45-with time to schmooze on the way out to the car before we were all locked in. I spoke with the two potential converts and we started trying to find time to sit together and talk. I spoke with the woman who was crying. She told a sad story which I do not feel comfortable sharing in this public domain, but needless to say, the pain was real, the loss profound. Perhaps she and I will get together later this week to share some time and maybe, just maybe, we can help her to be released, just a small bit, from her pain and suffering.

I was a rabbi tonight. And it felt …great? Not the right word. Fitting. I guess…no, that is not right either. I do not know how to explain it. It was.

Someone told me after, this is the closest thing to a real service I have ever been too. Yes, me too.

Some of the Congregants including the rowdy crowd from the back row (and by back row, I mean 4th row)

The three (yup, THREE) prayer books I used to lead services this evening...there was a third one, but I can only write about so many stories before this just gets plain old too long