return to profane time

[calimac]

I spent much of the day at Yom Kippur services. I've never connected well with the Kol Nidre service, the opening-evening service, and I didn't go, but the afternoon and closing service of Yom Kippur, at least as we do it here, is for me the most - I was about to say magical, but the word I want is holy - event on the congregational liturgical calendar. Especially meaningful this year because it includes Yitzkor, the memorial service, at which my mother's name was again read and at which we recite prayers with lines like So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.

Other things happened. Chief rabbi had a cold so bad she could hardly talk. Assistant rabbis were asked to speak on what they'd be willing to die for. Most of them said their children. And I thought, isn't this an artificial question? Under what circumstances would you have to die for your children? I can imagine dire circumstances in which you might risk your life to save them from danger, but that's a different thing. And one should still be careful. I'm strangely bothered by kevin_standlee's story of the man who dove onto the tracks to save his dog from an oncoming train; in the event, the train killed both of them, the dog as well as the man. I know that there's no time to weigh options in such a situation, but what haunts me is that the man's sacrifice didn't do the dog any good, and did harm anyone who loved that man.

A couple members of the congregation were called up to speak on what they believe. One said he believes that his role as a father requires him to be there for his children as much as possible, whether they want him around or not. One time, he says, he'd taken his kids to the amusement park, and after hours in line his then 15-year-old daughter said to him, "Are you here just for us?" When he replied yes, she said, "Thanks - I guess." He said, "You can thank me by someday marrying a guy who'll take your children to the amusement park."

The other speaker told of how his family moved from heavily-Jewish Brooklyn to deepest South Carolina in the 1950s when he was 9 (dad's job transfer), and how they gave an extra ticket and a ride to the ball game to their maid's husband. (Yes, they had a black maid and no, she wasn't paid very well - the speaker wasn't out to sugarcoat the relationship.) But despite the man's warning to leave him off several blocks away - of course they wouldn't be sitting together, not in segregated days - someone must have seen them, and delivered a message that such socialization wasn't approved of. The message was delivered by BB gun at their dog. (The dog survived.) And that, the speaker said, is why he became a warrior for social justice. That's a very Jewish response, as I understand Judaism.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

All I can say after reading those is, let there be peace.

Happy new year.