View from the Pew
A look inside Hawaii's houses of worshipBy Mary Adamski
High Holy Days include
ancient peace prayerThe prayer for peace came near the end of the four-hour worship service last Saturday. Hundreds of years old, it struck a chord in the heart for September 2002.
"May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease, when a great peace will embrace the whole world. Then nation will not threaten nation and mankind will not again know war."
There was irony pertinent to current events in the central Scriptural reading of the Rosh Hashana service. The passage from the Book of Genesis, which chronicles the establishment of the Jewish people through Abraham and his son Isaac, also contains God's promise that a great nation will descend from Abraham's son with a slave woman.
"Today we hear about Ishmael, who nearly cops it," Jonathan Webber told the Congregation Sof Ma'arav members. "God said, 'I want him to be head of a nation, the Arabs.' It's something we don't often talk about in this context: What is our relationship with the Arabs? It's a subject for a lecture some other time.
"God makes promises; that is the key image of Rosh Hashana," he told the crowd of about 60 people at Day One of the Jewish High Holy Days. Webber, a British professor, was brought back for the 15th year to lead the seasonal services that began last weekend with the celebration of New Year 5763. The 10-day period will end with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which begins tomorrow evening.
The pyrotechnics were missing from the New Year's Eve celebration. No rousing sound as the shofar -- ram's horn -- is blown. The tradition was skipped because the holiday began on the Sabbath. It would be considered work, and work is forbidden on the Sabbath, explained Bernice Littman, president of the Conservative Jewish congregation.
At Temple Emanu-El, a Reform Jewish congregation a block away, the horn was sounded. In another distinction between the schools of Jewish philosophy, the Reform community held a one-day service, while Sof Ma'arav continued with a second four-hour service Sunday, when the shofar was in play.
One thing the two synagogues have in common is congregation participation. Most of the 60 men and women present took turns joining Webber at the table to read from the Torah or recite from the prayer book. It's not something you'd see in an Orthodox synagogue, he said, where women sit in a separate section and do not publicly participate.
Sof Ma'arav has held its services at the First Unitarian Church -- a denomination ideally free of graven images and symbols that would not suit -- for 30 years, said Littman. "We have nice relationship with them. When our holiday occurs on a Sunday, they move their service for us and sometimes come to participate."
I've heard Hare Krishnas chant the name of God for hours, and many's the time I've joined the "glory and praise" song portion of Christian services which seem to go on for hours. "Our God Is an Awesome God" is a big favorite.
But neither brought the sense of people in awe at God's greatness as did the four hours of subdued, even matter-of-fact progression through the liturgy prescribed for Rosh Hashana. These are people who know where they stand with God and what he requires from them from the text they are reading. The story of Abraham is their story. Much of the prayer text has been in use for 1,800 years, said Webber. Imagine knowing you are doing the same thing your ancestors did, from further back than any family record of begats can take you. I guess the danger would be in becoming smug about that.
When Webber launched a familiar melody, it stimulated a group chorus above the prevailing murmur. The peak of exuberance came when everyone reached out to touch the scrolls of the Torah, known elsewhere as the first five books of the Old Testament, as it was carried around the room.
That's when the fellow sharing the back row recognized that I was an outsider. He informed me that my note-taking qualified as work forbidden on the Sabbath.
The service does go on and on, and the outsider's mind does wander because much of what's sung and read is in Hebrew. (There's an English read-along in the prayer book.)
"Jewish services do tend to be long compared to other religions," said Littman, in a classic understatement. The usual weekly crowd doubles for the High Holy Days, she said, but only the stalwarts attended both days last weekend.
"Yom Kippur is a reconciling time, between you and God and you and other people," she said. "The purpose of atonement is to get yourself right with others. One of the customs is to ask other people for forgiveness for what you did to them."
The long services -- more ahead on Monday -- aren't the whole measure of Jewish spiritual practice at this holy season. That will include fasting, described in the prayer book as a discipline of self-denial that vividly expresses regret at one's shortcomings, a turning away from material things to intensify spirituality and a strengthening of self-discipline than can deepen sensitivity to those people who starve all year long.
Devout Jews will fast from food and drink from sundown tomorrow for about 25 hours till sundown of Yom Kippur. Seeker of religious experience I may be, but I don't think that one is for me.
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Mary Adamski covers religion for the Star-Bulletin.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.
