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MOTHERLODE JEWISH COMMUNITY
Message
From Rabbi
From Rabbi
August 28, 2007
Personal Note to Mother Lode Jewish Community
By Rabbi Alan Greenbaum
Dear Friends,
My name is Alan Greenbaum and I will be your rabbi during the upcoming High Holidays when we gather
at the Orman's home. As I approach these holidays, I always take some time to recall some personal
memories of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
For me, the High Holidays has first and foremost been about the community coming together. In my
earliest memories growing up in West Los Angeles, the images that come to mind are non-synagogue
venues. The number of attendees was so great that our congregation had to meet in a large movie
theater in Westwood. So in the same theater section where I had seen some great movies, I was then
hearing great messages from a make-shift pulpit. In my late teens I attended services with other
congregations which took me to "pews" in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (where I had formerly
attended a Rolling Stones concert) and even at an immense Masonic Lodge (where I had no previous
associations at all). In fact, in my 30's when I was serving a congregation in Thousand Oaks, we had
services each year in different churches with sanctuaries large enough to contain the large number of
attendees. What all these venues had in common was the fact that they were not conventional
synagogues; that on the most important days of the Jewish year, it ultimately did not matter where we
gathered to pray.
I also remember that when the gathering represented such a large percentage of the Jewish population,
there was something special in the air. There was a spiritual electricity which was palpable. There is
something about sitting in a room, looking around, and seeing virtually everybody from the congregation
seated together that made a powerful statement about community during these sacred days! It is the
juxtaposition of people and time - the Jews and a time of new beginning, that is absolutely magical.
In his book entitled "The Sabbath," Abraham Joshua Heschel write of this kind of magic, when Jews
seize the opportunity of the Sabbath and mold that time into something sacred. In that same way, this is
what we do during the High Holidays which include Yom Kippur, also known as the Sabbath of Sabbaths.
We will gather together as a community of Jewish individuals spread over 2 or 3 counties and together
seize that time with the hope and prayer that we can fashion something that is holy.
So these memories and this hope is what I will bring to our special day of worship. And what will you
bring? What is the significance of the High Holidays to you? What are your hopes and expectations? I
ask because you and I will soon be sharing that experience and since we will not have met before then, I
would very much like to hear from you on that question as a way of getting to know you somewhat. If you
have the time, please write me and let me know these things (RabbiG@cebridge. net).
Sincerely,
Rabbi Alan Greenbaum
Grass Valley
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