Playing Together

It is Chanukah and it is also Shabbat. Paul and I are spending the weekend with the community of Casa Hillel. We are their guests and we feel so welcome as teachers, mentors, and friends. We are embraced completely. The gratitude never ceases.

 

We sing. We pray. We eat, study, read and talk together. We share ritual and are encouraged to engage further. Our hosts just want to hear more. How do we sing this prayer? What comes next in the prayer book? What tune do we use for this psalm?

Our future

As we finish singing Shalom Aleichem and welcome in Shabbat, Paul and I describe our own family ritual of angels. In our home, on Friday night, we pass around a bowl full of angel cards. On each card is a characteristic: “grace”, “creativity”, “humility”, and “integrity”. After choosing your angel each week, is a time for reflection and consideration. “What is significant about that particular angel for you this week? Why is that angel choosing to be with you?”

Our hosts are completely captivated and I promise to get them a set of angels when I return to Canada. “We want to make our own,” says one of the youth. All agree. It becomes one of our tasks for the weekend.

More goals unfold as the weekend progresses. As we get to know each other better the needs and possibilities for the community begin to become clearer.

Many of the tunes we sing are similar to those that we use in Toronto. Some are different though, and they are eager to learn new niggunim while we are here.

We make several charts for songs that are printed and taped on to the walls of the Casa for easy access. We intentionally write them out in thick black marker and in printed Hebrew. That, after all, is the print of the Torah, and they want to be able to read Torah.

During Shabbat service, their Torah (a gift from a Jewish community in Kansas City) is taken out of the ark and carried around the room for everyone to touch and/or kiss. Then the Torah is lovingly placed on the pulpit. The Torah reading occurs from a chumash. The Torah itself is never opened. There is no one comfortable reading directly from the scrolls. That becomes one of our goals for the future. We commit to teach them how to open the torah to the appropriate section and reinforce the idea that it’s still okay to read from a book while someone follows in the Torah. Next time we are here (in two weeks) we will try that together.

The reverence for Torah is evident as is their love for everything Jewish. Each person enters the Casa with a lift of their hand and a kiss for the mezuzah that hangs on the doorpost. All eyes close tightly when reciting the Shema, the most familiar Jewish prayer that sanctifies God’s presence and reinforces monotheism in a Jewish context. Chanting of prayers is audible and melodic and, as I look around, inevitably there are smiles and elation. This small group of Jews love praying!

We spend all weekend with the people of Casa Hillel, beginning with a Friday night dinner and short service and ending with a late lunch on Sunday afternoon. Throughout the weekend we light Chanukah candles, sing Chanukah songs, play dreydl games, eat chocolate gelt and drink strong Guatemalan coffee until late at night.

Havdallah

We share Shabbat services as well as Havdallah and make good use of their homemade Reform prayer books that are translated in to Spanish. We eat many meals together all of which are prepared together in their communal kitchen. We wait patiently for the 3 stars in the sky indicating the beginning of Havdallah.

We make Angel cards, alphabet cards, and numerous charts of Hebrew songs. We sing together regularly as Paul plays guitar and introduces them to many new tunes. Another member, Hilario, brings his guitar too and begins learning new tunes to share.

I met with Ardany and his parents in preparation for his Bar Mitzvah that takes place next November. Our goal is to help Ardany read Hebrew well enough to read directly from the Torah. It will be the first of the community.

I am also thinking of helping them with a writing model that will make it easier to learn and teach for a Dvar Torah. Susan Schwartz, a retired teacher from the Toronto District School Board, created a model called “Retell, Relate, Reflect” that works well for expository writing with a bit of soul.

During our time there, Paul and I became great friends with so many of the people.  We began our journey of learning together. We walked and talked and laughed and even cried, all in the attempt to get to know each other better. I am definitely falling love, and, it is clear, they are falling in love with us too.

Thank you Rabbi Elyse for introducing us to these wonderful people and giving us a chance to be together.  Their love for you is making them strong as community and their commitment to Judaism obviously so enhanced by your relationship with them…. and, of course, with us!