I
couldn’t stop looking at the upside down Siddur Sim Shalom on the bookshelf in
the back of the Jewish Chapel. On Friday
nights, the Jewish community uses a mixture of Gates of Prayer (primarily for
Kabbalat Shabbat) and Likrat Shabbat (primarily for the Evening Service). We keep around the Siddur Sim Shalom copies
for Shabbat/Festival Morning services and because there is really nothing else
to do with them.
There it sat
staring at me with its upside-down lettering on the binding standing out
against all the other uniformly shelved books.
It was killing me.
There are
a lot – and I mean a lot – of wonderful things about not running services in
the Camp Foster Jewish Chapel on Friday nights.
My rush to pull myself together and get to services early has turned
off; my need to be the last person out of the chapel on Friday night (“to win
Kiddush”) has diminished.
But while
I sit back and let Rabbi Yonina Creditor take charge of the service, I find
myself staring at little things and obsessing over them.
My first
week, I stared down a picture frame that still had plastic protector over it;
when the ark opened I noticed the light was out. The following Thursday, I went into the
chapel and fixed them both.
For some
reason, my eyes wandered to the back of the room this past week. And there it was. I couldn’t leave the room without fixing it.
Transitions
are tough. I trust Rabbi Creditor
implicitly, and I pretty much begged my leadership to send her/any rabbi out
here to serve the base community. But a
little bit of me is sad to see that part of my life come to an end, to see the
chapel that I tried to restore being run by another, to let go of the
reins. It’s tough…but it’s awesome.
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