Kesher Talk

Ha-mavdil bayn kodesh l'chol. I'm back. The retreat was incredible. There were about 300 of us at Camp Ramah in upstate New York, the vast majority under 30, including 3 or 4 couples with young babies and toddlers. It was cold at night, the bunks were rustic, and it rained on Saturday, but the setting - on a lakefront in the middle of a forest - was gorgeous. The food was good enough, and plentiful. There was a fair amount of booze, in the Ashkenazi Jewish tradition of accompanying festive occasions with shots of schnapps. Lots of niggun singing throughout. Some golden oldies on guitar around the campfire on the last night.

I hang out at Hadar for the davening with diverse and unpretentiously musical prayer leaders, and the quality of Jewish learning, which is sophisticated and informed and interactive, but doesn't require a large knowledge base or fluent Hebrew. I also like the combination of complete commitment to full access to all ritual for women and gays, and aggressively traditional practice. (At about 3 AM last night I was treated to a disquisition on whether a Kohen can lead the Shavuot musaf service during Birkat Cohanim. - I don't remember the rationale but it has something to do with keeping your feet together. This is the kind of thing Naomi Chana would find fascinating.) There are some ordained rabbis and cantors in the community (which includes a global network of friends and academic and professional colleagues from Israel to Boston), but almost all learning and services are lay-led, and elegantly so. (And if you volunteer to leyn they send you a .pdf file of your portion - they are so organized.)

It is a tradition dating back to 16th c. Kabbalists of Sfat to stay up all night studying Torah on the first night of Shavuot, and pray the morning service at dawn. At our retreat, there were 4-5 simultaneous tracks of study with about 20 different teachers, on subjects such as: the Zohar on Nadav and Avihu, the history and meaning of the "Akdamut" piyyut, "The Nature of Gender Identity in Egalitarian Communities," a comparison of the God-concepts of Franz Kafka, Emmanuel Levinas, and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, and midrash from Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav on the connection between rain and peace. And several song/liturgy/niggun workshops, where I learned a funky Ugandan version of Lecha Dodi, among other musical delights. (I am not going to hunt up links to all these topics - look them up yourself if interested.)

The shacharit service began at 5 AM, in a large hall open to the elements. It was cold. There were 200 people there who had all stayed up all night studying and singing, including a couple who helped organize the retreat through late pregnancy and labor and brought their two-week-old with them. A gay woman led shacharit (and even sang in my key!). A man (gender orientation unknown) led musaf. We sang at least two Hallel melodies I'd never heard before, people stamping their feet with fervor and to keep warm. That's the kind of community this is.

posted by Judith @ 6/08/2003 04:51:16 PM