I must describe to you the Simchat Torah service last night at Beth Israel. Picture the sanctuary with about 500 adults and children of all ages filling the middle section. We were kept out of the side sections to accommodate the main event. Which was: the two rabbis, Simeon Glaser with his guitar and Cory Weiss with his accordion, and the cantor led the Torah carriers and all the children with flags round and round the sanctuary singing and singing. All the kids then sat down.
The cantor then unwound one of the Torahs, starting at the beginning of the aisle on the east side, proceeding around the back and down the aisle on the west. Every 2-3 feet an adult held on to the scroll to keep it straight and a child held up a sign at various points along the scroll: “Noah & The Flood” – “Abraham’s Covenant with God”–“Joseph & His Brothers”– “The Ten Commandments” – “The Exodus” – etc. Then Rabbi Cory read the final portion (in Hebrew, translating as he went) of the death of Moses. Rabbi Simeon then dashed across the bima to the beginning of the scroll and did the same thing with “b’reshith”. (They had portable microphones!) After rewinding the Torah, Rabbi Simeon walked up and down the center aisle giving a Bible quiz. Every time a child gave the right answer he/she got a pumpkin from off the bima which was decorated with all the foliage and fruit from the sukkah. The whole service took about an hour and a half, starting at 7:30.
Dad said, this must be what a Young Judaea weekend was like. I described it to Rob today and he said that’s exactly the kind of thing they did at the Henry Jacobs camp in Mississippi. Sidney Mittau, who’s 92 now (a wonderful woman who’s always doing something for the shul) said “In all my years I’ve never seen anything like this! Rabbi Feldman must be spinning!” (He ever espoused decorum!) I know that the Orthodox would also have had a fit to see a Torah unrolled and people touching it. But I say it was such a thoroughly educational and participatory event. Rob quoted his Palo Alto rabbi on this point, who says that “today’s innovations are tomorrow’s traditions.” There is such a new atmosphere of youth and excitement and friendliness at the synagogue now. Also, the Russians (they’re called New Americans) are present in large numbers; you can see whole families of three generations.
I attended the yiskor service on Wednesday morning and was more shaken by it then I thought I would be. After last night I recalled what you said about Nana’s considerateness – to have died while I was there so I didn’t have to make an extra trip. Her death also seems to have brought me out of the spiritual desert I’ve been in during Rabbi Silver’s tenure, and came at a time of significant (and to me needed and welcome) change in our synagogue.