Tonight is Yom Kippur, the Holiest Day of the Jewish year. For the last several years, our prayer group, Minyan Naaleh (We will ascend) has come together to pray the Kol Nidrei service together. The Denver Synagogue (BMH-BJ) has graciously hosted us for a number of years. Usually, we have had the luxury or showing up and the room is basically set up for us. This year, there was some confusion about which room we would be in so I went by this morning to sort that out. Once we figured out where we would be, we had to physically set up the room. Heres the first breathless moment: I was talking to one of the custodians who sets up for us every year when a little girl, maybe four years old, entered the building. Do you see my daughter over there? Yup, I said. Her middle name is Naaleh. I like what you guys are doing and I decided to name her after you. Speechless. I then went to get the torahs. The rabbi walked me down to the huge sanctuary, we opened the enormous ark where there were about ten torahs decked out in white for the High Holidays. He reached up and handed me a torah. We brought that and another back to the room well be using tonight, and put them into a smaller ark. You have to understand, I grew up in an Orthodox community. The girls and women just werent involved with the torah. We maybe could see them across the partition but we certainly didnt touch them. And we definitely had no business carrying them or being any way involved with them. Although its been many years since I learned how to read from the torah, and Ive been leading prayers for a long time, I have to tell you that just seeing the big sanctuary all ready for hundreds of people to pray together tonight, opening the majestic ark, carrying the torahs, and physically transforming a space from a room into a sacred, holy space was extremely emotional for me. Ive been kind of on the verge of tears all day. Just the awe of Yom Kippur, of taking stock of who we are and who we aspire to be, standing with our communities, being in dialogue with ourselves, each other and God. Honestly, its a lot. For those of you who are celebrating, may the day be meaningful and put you in touch with your highest, truest self. With love, Julie
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 20:43:23 +0000