God laughs a little bit more: AKA what if you had a shofar service and no one showed? (Thursday morning)

Ok, so I’ve been awake since 3 am. Note that as the subtext to my day. Between the jetlag and being thrown by leading services out of two books, well, not so much sleeping last night. Thankfully I went to bed at 10:00 so five hours is more than I often get any given night. I can function on five hours no problem, but lead Rosh Hashanah service???

I spent the wee hours working on aligning my book with the older version so I could be on the same page as the congregants, practiced chanting some torah (since, as of last night, I was suddenly one aliyah short for the Torah reading minimum…so, you know, I learned a few more verses today at 3…why not? Not much else going on at that hour…)

Eventually, I made my way over to the chapel for the day’s festivities. Everything went fine-I was a bit punchy though…not exactly in top form, but the group is great (we were 12 today) and a lot of fun. I had made up these cards to assign parts to people. I had twenty-six cards…so basically everyone was really involved with the service. Shoosh, I hope they enjoyed it….

I had been stressing about not having a shofar blower. My whole sermon for today was about the shofar. It fit in so cool! Reading akedah, linking that shofar in my sermon and then doing the shofar service. I found a volunteer blower who happens to play in the 7^th fleet band.

Now, an important disclaimer. This gentleman who volunteered was doing so out of the goodness of his heart and not as part of the band. The band does not play shofarot but this nice guy does.

I was going along, leading the service, minding the time to make sure we did not get to the shofar service before the appointed time for this young man to show…and then the appointed time came…and went…and we read Torah…and I gave my sermon…and then, time for the shofar service…and no shofar blower…

Here is how cool this community is. They rolled with it. My liaison and lay leader, Craig, and his son Jay, came up, they each took a horn and they gave it the old college try. On the one hand, it was the worst shofar blowing ever. On the other, it was the best, most wondrous shofar service in the history of the Jewish people. There was no fake smiling about it not sounding “right” there was just a sense of pleasure in being there and trying it out. I mean, we had a full service complete with tekiah, teruah, shevarim. I was really proud of the two of them for stepping up and doing what needed to be done.

Now, Chaplain Ross, my supervisor on this stint, happened to chose this moment to come in and visit services. Oh well…what ya going to do? He is a great guy. Easy going, enthusiastic, curious, respectful-just wonderful. He was fine and even seemed entertained and appreciative with the rest of us. After services, we took some pictures and then had lunch!

All and all, it was great. I mean, none of the service parts seem to be going in the way that it SHOULD go. But I feel happy to let the shoulds go and to enjoy the service for being exactly what it is. I was worrying about people knowing the tunes. When we got to l’dor v’dor-I started it and waited for the congregation to echo the opening line. For a brief moment, I thought, uh-oh…what if they don’t know it? But they did and they sang and it was just…well, Jews!

I mean, here I am in Japan with Jews from all over the united states ranging in past experience from not-yet-Jewish to Conservative. And we can all come together and know the same songs, the same tunes, the same melodies, the same language…I know this is the point-but THIS IS THE POINT! I wrestle a lot with liturgy and what its purpose is. I do not pray even when I sit in prayers. What I do know is liturgy gives us a common language amongst every Jew everywhere and it allows us to come together and share in the experience of Judaism. We belong to one another in this incredibly simple yet powerful way. We all speak the same language. It is just there. It is like breathing, it is a part of us. When I sing, “l’dor vador” they all, automatically, sing back “l’dor vador.” It’s like our own code…

Today has really gotten me to reshape my feelings about prayer, its importance and its value in our lives. I think American Jewry is pulling away from liturgy, but after today, that just feels wrong. Even if they liturgical experience does not do it for us in our quest for spirituality or God, I really feel like it is essential in our quest for one another.