A New Year of Learning
August 12, 2009
When I was a child in grade school, I asked my parents if we could attend Friday night services. I wanted to go because all my friends from Hebrew school were there. My friends from Hebrew school were there because their parents made them go.
My classmates and I had a great time. During the service, we’d squirm a little, go out to visit the restroom a little, and become elated whenever the rabbi came to a passage in Hebrew that we knew and could read along with him.
During the Torah service (it was then the custom in our congregation to read Torah every Friday night) Rabbi Fuchs would choose a few of us to help unwrap the Torah scroll, or to dress it again afterwards. I remember the thrill of handling the silver rimonim, crowns, with their delicate bells; the heavy me’il, mantle, of soft velvet. The Torah’s finery reinforced our teachers’ lessons: the words inside the Torah are special, too.
The rabbi’s sermon was a challenge for us, but it never lasted too long. Sometimes we saw our parents listening intently. Sometimes we heard our parents talking about the rabbi’s sermon later that week; a couple of those sermons my father still speaks of today, some thirty years later.
We knew the end of the service was near because there was a lot of standing and some bowing, and then there was the rush to the oneg table, to be closest to the cakes and cookies once we had said the long Kiddush over wine and short motzi for the challah. I remember being amazed by the grownups who knew the whole Kiddush by heart. By the time my friends and I became Bar and Bat Mitzvah, we had memorized it, too.
Services always began at 8:30 PM, after Shabbat dinner at home. After the service, we were up past our bedtimes, fueled by sugary treats from the oneg table, and ready to take a few delighted, screaming laps around the foyer and the oneg hall. A lot of people stayed quite late, visiting, catching up, kids playing. The teenagers, I remember, would sometimes come to services and then go out afterwards with their friends. Pretty soon, I was one of those teenagers.
We did not go every week—sometimes we were out of town. Sometimes there was a school performance on Friday night. Sometimes my parents were too tired to get us all out the door. But pretty often, there we were, sometimes a few minutes late, hurrying into services.
At Temple Emanu-El, Religious School parents occasionally express concerns to me about their child’s Hebrew skills, about how well their child knows the prayers they will be expected to recite for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah service. I’ve heard from parents of our older students who regret that their child is not more involved with the synagogue, but explain, “he goes to a different school than most of the other students. He doesn’t have friends at Temple Emanu-El.
I can’t think of a better way to address these issues than to bring our students regularly to Shabbat services, which begin at 6:00 PM or at 8:00 PM on Friday, and at 10:30 AM on Saturday. Sometimes, after a 6:00 service, when it’s still early enough for a leisurely Shabbat dinner, we share dinner at the synagogue —those are usually the services led by our students, and afterwards the littlest ones are always doing laps around the social hall, screaming with pleasure. But every week there is an opportunity to hear the familiar Hebrew, to learn some Torah, to see friends or make friends, to pray, to enjoy the oneg, to be inspired, to connect with community.
Like my friends and me, some kids drag their parents to synagogue; but most kids go to synagogue because their parents make them go. Sometimes, once they’re there, we all have fun.
Summer’s drawing to a close, and at Temple Emanu-El Religious School we are preparing for a new year of learning, a new year of sharing our love of Judaism. Not only in the classroom, but in the sanctuary, too. I invite you to join us, soon.
