Shul Shopping Part 2

Friday night I joined Annabell Lee, Esther, and Charlie for Friday night services at Temple Beth Am, followed by a lovely Shabbos dinner at Annabel Lee's home where Joel and Hilary joined us. I really enjoyed the spirited service. It's done in the Carlebachian style, which means there was a lot of singing and "lai lai lai la la la..."ing. The rabbi was young and very easy to listen to and follow. I think I'd come to this shul again, especially since they are beginning a group for young professionals my age.

As I sat there in shul my thoughts wandered to a deep reflection of self. Being raised reform, I really feel like I missed out on the deeper meaning in so many things. That night in shul, as everyone sang, I read in English. The thing that bothers me is that I was merely reading words from a page and not getting the deeper more significant spiritual relevance to it all. I want to FEEL the spirit of Shabbos. I want to LOVE it, to EMBRACE it; that's a hard thing to do when I don't even know what I'm missing.

After shul everyone walked back to Annabel's home. Because I was running late, I drove and met them at her place. They had a mile walk home, so I sat in front of her place for about 15 minutes. It was quite special. I watched as many other Jews walked home from temple. I imagined the scenes in their homes when they returned. Greetings, warm welcomes, maybe some friends at their tables, prayers and joyful song. I felt proud at that moment to be a Jew. I don't live in an area where I see this, so for me it was moving. It really made me reflect and desire to know more. To understand on more than a surface level what religion means to me and the place it has in my life. I 'feel' it strongly. Bob Marley said, "Who feels it knows it Lord". Maybe I need to really look within. If I'm feeling this so strongly, somewhere deep down, I must 'know' it.

As a wrap up to the weekend, I toveled some new wine glasses and dishes, so that I now have enough in order to entertain guests one of these days. I also went to Borders Book store. I bought, don't laugh at me, "The Everything Torah Book". This book is a VERY intro book to Torah and "all you need to understand the basics of Jewish law and the Old Testament". It sounds basic, but it actually gives a good intro to many things that I am not "in the know" on. As a matter of fact, I thought it might make a good place to start formulating questions.

NEXT WEEK: I'll be attending Temple Beth Israel for Shabbat. This temple is not that far from me, but not walking distance. It seems to have an interesting history as being the second oldest shul still functioning in its original location; yet, they are so small they don't have their own rabbi. They are in an area that I, ironically, used to live very close to and didn't know it existed. I'm hoping to like it because they are not charging for High Holidays, which for me is significant. I have a feeling that I'll split my time between the Chabad local to me and this shul.