Saturday, August 6, 2016


A night to remember!

The highlight of my week every week is Friday night Shabbat dinner with my family. For 25 years,with the rare exceptions when I am out of town, our family gathers to bring in the Sabbath and spend time together.This tradition started when Sara my oldest child was 3 .She just turned 28.So when we were invited to someone else's house last night for Shabbat, you may well imagine that for me it came with a bit of apprehension.I was thrilled for the invitation and I looked forward to the evening, yet there was also a feeling of loss for me. Friday nights after all are that special time when the week shuts down, the noise goes away and for a moment, how ever brief it may be, I am in the most peaceful place on Earth,our Shabbat dinner table.
Never the less, I pulled up my big boy pants and we headed out for the evening. The itinerary was Friday night services in the City followed by dinner at our hosts apartment back in New Jersey.I knew the NY shul experience was going to be different than what I grew up with and am accustomed to.. I just didn't know how different.
For 54 years I have attended services in the same building, the Jewish Community Center of Paramus. It is by all accounts our families home away from home.The building was built in the late 1950's and has remained a fixture in our community, a gathering place, ever since.
The host congregation last night uses a number of different venues where they rent space. Last night's hall was a Presbyterian church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.There is nothing  and no place in the world like NYC. New York is a way of life and last night was no exception. We parked and made our way down the street to what looked like another NYC office building. In the lobby, people were scurrying up staircases and into elevators heading off in what seemed like 50 different directions.We were a bit like country cousins visiting our big city family for the first time. I pretended to be as comfortable as possible,making my way to the floor where our service would be as if I had done this many times before.Trust me,we were the proverbial strangers in a strange land. Not 3 minutes after we entered the building, a woman grabbed my wife's arm and exclaimed "Susan,what are you doing here?". It was a young woman that she worked with for years at the day school where she had been a teaching assistant. 
(We call this Jewish Geography).
Okay so maybe this isn't such a strange land after all, I thought. We made our way into the sanctuary, a 2 story room . The sign on the wall behind me read seating capacity 563. That was for the first floor. I have no idea how many seats were in the enormous balcony that loomed over us. On the bima (the altar) sat 3 musicians,a guitar player a violinist and a man with a conga drum. 
Talk about strange land! I knew this was going to be something quite new for me.
A man and a woman walked out. The man spoke and asked for a 10 minute meditation before we got started to help set the tone for the evening. It was nice using this respite to shut down the noise from the mundane world and prepare for the welcoming in of the Sabbath.When he rang 3 gongs and  I closed my eyes,there were probably just over 100 people in the room.10 minutes later,3 more chimes signaled the end of the meditation. My eyes opened to find  the room well over 50% full. The man and the woman were both rabbis and they greeted us and began the service.The best way for me to describe what ensued for the next hour and change is to compare it to an old time tent revival meeting. In my almost 62 years on the good Lord's Earth, I have never experienced a Jewish service any thing like this. Bodies swaying, hands waving, people dancing and a joyous sound that drowned out the musicians on the stage. By now, the room was filled to capacity. When the Rabbi addressed us he spoke to all of us,those on the main floor and the countless number up in the balcony which I can only guess was also packed with people.Many of the prayers were unfamiliar to me. The melodies were all different.I sat and stared, observing these people,my people, worshiping in a way so foreign to me that it was at times,unrecognizable.
And it was awesome!
I could go on for ever about my experience last night.Besides the music, the dancing, the revelry , there was a message delivered and a spirit shared that I could write volumes on.Maybe at some point I will. Today however,I will spend some time sorting through all of what I heard,saw and felt in that room last night. Suffice it to say, it was a night I will remember for ever. And I will never look at my sheltered world in the same way again.
BTW.....the dinner was fantastic as well!

Shabbat Shalom!

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