Home to Danielson for the Holidays

Our temple was rededicated almost one year ago after significant repairs flowing burst frozen pipes and consequent flooding.  Last year we celebrated the High Holidays at a local church that generously offered their chapel.  This year we observed Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with renewed zeal and reverence, grateful to be back in our historic, spiritual home.
 
We had our Zoom links ready; our camera was set up for folks who were joining us remotely. Our Torahs had been rolled to the appropriate starting points for the readings.  We had auctioned Aliyot a week earlier in the most successful Aliyah auction in our history.  All was ready.  Then, as the Yiddish expression goes, “der man trakht un Got lakht”  Man plans and God laughs. I was about to leave my house for the Temple at 8:30 am when I saw a voicemail from Alan, who reads the Torah for our services.  He said in a faltering voice, “I do not feel well, I won’t be at services this morning.”  Yikes!  What to do?
 
One thing we did not do was to panic.  Being a Jewish congregation in a town where there is a handful of Jews is already a challenge and improvisation is one of the skills that we have acquired to meet that challenge.  How do you have a Jewish community with very few Jews?  I thought back to another time of challenge, the Covid pandemic, which entailed taking all of our services, the High Holiday and our Community Passover Seder online.  We worked hard to create an online experience of the High Holidays (including a virtual Tashlikh service complete with images of some of Connecticut’s beautiful rivers).  This was a full presentation including images of text from the Machzor and audio recordings of some of the great cantors of the world and the Torah readings for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  So, while projecting the page of Hebrew text, viewers were able to hear the prayers and the Torah reading.  We had assigned aliyahs and as each person was called to the Torah, they recited the blessings and then we played the recording of the chanting.  Everyone online heard each other, and it was about as close to “being there” as one could imagine. 
 
Fortunately, I had those files on my laptop, and I grabbed it as I ran out of the house to leave for the Temple.  With assistance of my dear Leah Abrams, who understands these things better than I do, we connected my laptop to the Temple sound system and as each Aliyah was called, we found the spot in the Torah, the Aliyah chanted the blessings, and I hit play to hear the respective torah reading being chanted.  It was as smooth as could be imaged.  After Rosh Hashanah service, we gathered for apples, honey and challah, said our blessings and then caravaned to a local river where we performed the traditional Tashlikh ceremony.  Unburdened from a year’s accumulation of regrets, we went home lighter, freer and ready for the challenge of a new year.  Hopefully, Alan will be able to read for Yom Kippur service, but he’s not up to it, we have an alternative ready.
 
It was a similar scene for Erev Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur.  Our services were beautifully led by talented lay volunteers including Marty Drobiarz, Rosa Drobiarz, Rachel Goldblatt, Leah Abrams, Alan Turner, Joel Rosenberg and Norm Berman.  Our liturgy was a mix of the very traditional and contemporary readings, poetry and song designed to render the experience meaningful for everyone who attended including several non-Jewish attendees who reacted with deep respect and appreciation for our observances. 
 
As we enter the New Year empowered and spiritually uplifted, we can look back on our observances with pride and satisfaction.  Temple Beth Israel is not just a house of worship.  We are a preservation society.  We are preserving an historic building and the story of a unique Jewish community.  We honor our ancestors and celebrate our Jewishness in a manner that respects the old while venturing into the future in innovative and creative ways.  We utilize technology and innovation to reach members who have moved out of the area or who are physically unable to join us in person. 
 
We also rely on our close relationships with our non-Jewish neighbors with whom we’ve had a warm friendship from our very earliest days.  This is how we remain vibrant and closely connected as a community.  This is how we will continue to meet the challenges of being Jewish in a time and under circumstances that test our commitment and our identity.  We have a spiritual home in Danielson, Connecticut regardless of where we live.  This is where we started, and we can always come home for the holidays.