Celebrating 100 Years of High Holy Days !

We are finally marking the High Holy Days all together, in person!

We have just gotten out of two years of isolation and of dread of an inscrutable and widely infectious disease. For decades to come, we will be learning the lesson of whether the lockdowns, the masking, the isolation, the threats of mandatory vaccination were worth the risks or created even more damage. This was especially true for our very elderly, who were often abandoned, and our very young, who were locked out of schools and learning, or whose language and emotional development was curbed because they could not observe facial expressions.

What we do know, is that for us, for the Jewish community, especially for Hollywood Temple Beth El, our “peoplehood” was also placed in isolation, masked, put behind screens, put behind computers and ipads. Synagogues across the country found themselves damaged as a result, and we have been hard hit no less. It has been a struggle, across the country, for Jewish organizations to come out of this mess, and we , too, are digging ourselves out of the hole we were stuck in.

Nevertheless- V ‘af al pi chen vlamrot hakol”—to borrow words from an old Israeli songs-“Nevertheless and despite it all”, we have been able to hold open our doors and make it into our 100th High Holy Days as a “ kehillah kedoshah” a sacred community.

Yes, one hundred years since the early Jewish pioneers first opened a synagogue in Hollywood under the name “Beth El”, we are able to open our doors for High Holy Days services. Not only have we been able to run our services in the chapel, but we have turned what was a desperate necessity, going virtual, behind a computer, into an asset, as people from not only our neck of the woods ( or Boulevard) but also around the US and even outside, check in to our services, via zoom, YouTube, or Facebook.

I invite you to join with us as a people. We are not a religion of social distancing. Six- feet apart may be good for some religions, and sitting on a pillar in isolation in some distant desert may be good for meditation, but you know, we as Jews, have to be together, we need to see each other, speak with each other, eat with each other, link arms together. That’s why we need to eat in company of at least three to properly thank God for our food, and we need a public of at least ten, a “minyan”, to connect ourselves with God and with our fellows

That’s why our favorite Jewish song, that everyone loves to join in on, is:

Hinei Mah Tov u MaNaim, Shevet Achim Gam Yachad.

Behold, How Beautiful and Pleasant, when Brothers and Sisters sit together as one ( Ps 113:1)

Come sit with us this Shabbat and every Shabbat, and every New Year, for years to come, Shevet Achim Gam Yachad, Sitting together as one.

L’Shanah Tovah , May you be inscribed for a good and wonderful and healthy year.

For the glorious story of our congregation over 100 years, you can follow the link below:

Part 1

http://www.rabbinorbert.com/2022/02/stories-for-100-years-of-hollywood.html

Part 2

http://www.rabbinorbert.com/2022/04/stories-for-100-years-of-hollywood.html