Before I pile on in with what happened on Saturday, apologies for my unplanned absence. All I will say is that is has been a busy few days, as those of you who haven’t been on Mars will have noticed! It may calm down at some point, hmm?
Anyway, back to my spiritual self, rather than my workaday self.
So, the Shabbat service this week was lovely. It was my first one where someone other than the Rabbi led it, and it was interesting to see how, although she wasn’t there (she was teaching the youngsters in the Beit Lameid classes), her structure to the more free-form part of the service still remained. For instance, after the Torah portion and associated readings, the leader of the service led us in some prayers which included turning our thoughts to the citizens of Palestine as well as those in Israel. Personally, I like this. I liked this aspect when I first heard it and I like it even better now I understand that this is something other people leading the service also include. Perhaps there may be those in the congregation that don’t feel the same, but if there are, they are keeping it to themselves! On other matters relating to the service, I was very happy to realise that I have absorbed melodies and words without being conscious of the fact – I was able to take part in some of the singing in Hebrew and understand what it meant!
I met some other people who I’ve not met before and amongst those were people who are wanting to convert. It’s very interesting – people really are different! I know this of course, but it struck me particularly, since us newcomers all had that one important strand in common, but had very different approaches to it. For me, it feels like I’m coming home. For someone else I think it is part of a journey where they are looking to fill their life with something, but they don’t know what. This someone else also told me that I would have no hope of conversion if I didn’t attend the Hebrew classes every week! I kept my counsel on that one fairly well, and merely said that this was for the Rabbi and myself to manage… And yet another newcomer clearly explained that he couldn’t get his head around the whole Christian Messiah thing, so Judaism was his religion of choice! To me, that last thought sounded like he felt he MUST choose a religion or else, but maybe it was just the way he expressed it!
The first class was very interesting – who knew that I would learn so much about personalities when the class was merely supposed to be an introduction to the Jewish year and then this period running up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in particular? It all came flooding out when we started discussing the issue of repentance and making amends to those we have wronged. I fele that there may be a big issue in one person’s life hidden behind the comments (quite fiercely made) about making someone apologise to you and that your final resort would be to forbid them to come to your funeral. Luckily for me, I’m not in such a difficult place in my life! It was also interesting to see that although some of us reverted to that typical British reserve, some of us did not (hands up!) and felt quite able to pass comment about letting go and getting on with your life…
Anyway, in addition to that we found our way around the Machzor too – very useful at this time of year.
So, what did I think? It is definitely a great way to get to the heart of things. Together with my various books that I am reading, I think it will be a wonderful way to learn and get more insight from the Rabbi about the religion and way of life that I am slowly but surely easing myself into.
Looking forward to next week, where we carry on with the High Holy Days.
