{"id":747,"date":"2014-06-13T19:17:41","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T23:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=747"},"modified":"2014-06-13T19:18:57","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T23:18:57","slug":"services-lived-and-lively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=747","title":{"rendered":"Services Lived (And Lively)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kids<\/a>It\u2019s been sitting on my desk for weeks \u2013 months, actually. The headline reads: \u201cMy Little Darling Goes to Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

The article is a first-person account . Most of the piece consisted of motherly anxiety: Would the child be able to sit still? Could he be quiet for an hour? What would she do if her child failed the church test?<\/p>\n

I read parts of it out loud to my husband, Ralf, over breakfast. There were helpful tips in the sidebar for keeping small children quiet.<\/p>\n

Bring snacks and water to keep \u201clittle mouths occupied.\u201d Have books at the ready to distract the child. Make sure you sit in the aisle so you can make a getaway if a tantrum starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess that\u2019s what you learn at church,\u201d Ralf said. \u201cTo be silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s confess, now. That\u2019s what children are taught at a good many synagogues, too.<\/p>\n

Not at mine.<\/p>\n

Last Friday was an all-night extravaganza at Temple Or Olam. We began with dinner, announcements, and awarding certificates to two of my teens, who had spent six months studying cantillation with me. (Their long-term goal: Becoming conversant enough to function as gabbais. Why not prove that a bar\/bat mitzvah is not a terminal degree?)<\/p>\n

Our Annual Meeting followed dinner. New board members were voted in, policies, amendments, and the budget were approved. Our new twenty-something group, Derech Yisrael, was introduced to the congregation.<\/p>\n

Then, it was almost Shabbat. Time for leading services.<\/p>\n

Who did the leading? The rabbi (me) accompanied by her electric guitar, TOO\u2019s amazing percussionist (Ralf), and the congregation\u2019s kids. Ranging from four to fifteen, they sing everything<\/em> with me. Everything.<\/p>\n

Kids younger than four mostly dance.<\/p>\n

We chanted the Shema to a sweet, slow melody. After a few minutes, I asked five-year-old Colin to sing alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cShema Yisrael,\u201d he sang, soft and high, his Ashkenazi accent full-on, \u201cAdonoi<\/em> Eloheynu, Adonoi-oi <\/em>E-echad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone breathed in the revelation of our time \u2013 of all time: Unity. All and everything one.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoses and Miriam,\u201d sings John, a thirteen-year-old who has Asperger\u2019s Syndrome. \u201cThey stood by the sea\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

But John is singing a different melody than I\u2019ve planned on, so I break in.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn,\u201d I sing back, \u201cthey were singing a different me-lo-dy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStealing the show is not my special-ty!\u201d he sings.<\/p>\n

I turn to the congregation, and sing happily, \u201cWell, you could have fooled me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I turn to Harrison, a red-headed ball of energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarr-i-son,\u201d I sing, and point to the page number for Mi Chamocha.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t miss a beat: \u201cPage one-sixty-two,\u201d he warbles beautifully.<\/p>\n

Several of the kids begin dancing during the first verse. When our prayer of exaltation and revelation is done, I ask: \u201cNow who really felt like dancing, but was afraid to do it? Raise your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

About fifteen adult hands inch toward the ceiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow\u2019s your chance,\u201d I grin, and we start singing again. In the end, more than half the congregation is on their feet, wending their way all around the sanctuary.<\/p>\n

None of this was planned. Neither was the moment when Colin said, after a rousing Adon Olam, \u201cLet\u2019s do it again!\u201d<\/p>\n

We did. Of course.<\/p>\n

I long for these children to know Shabbat services in their fullness. Their Kabbalat Shabbat needs to be the spontaneous expression of gratitude, thankfulness, joy. Yes, they talk and ask questions I cannot prepare for. Sometimes a toddler will cry or make unexpected noises. One of them will hit a note that will squeak its way through the doors as it leaves the room. Then it will hang out in the lobby for another five minutes.<\/p>\n

Anything can happen, really.<\/p>\n

But this is lived prayer, for toddlers and twenty-somethings, for those entering middle age to those who have long since left it behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cMission accomplished,\u201d wrote the mother who so worried about her child interrupting services. He had behaved in church. He had stayed still.<\/p>\n

Too bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The article is a first-person account . Most of the piece consisted of motherly anxiety: Would the child be able to sit still? Could he be quiet for an hour? What would she do if her child failed the church test?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[130,171,172],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-kabbalat-shabbat","tag-mi-chamocha","tag-toddlers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":756,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions\/756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}