On to Yom Kippur

So four (4!) days before Yom Kippur, I got a phone call from a rabbi of a congregation in the seaside city of Netanya. Their guest cantor had just cancelled, and the rabbi from Beit Daniel (in Tel Aviv, where I have been interviewing) had recommended that they talk to me. Of course I said yes, and we met the next day with the man who would be doing the reading parts of the services.

A word to you who aren't familiar with Yom Kippur--it is a 25-hour fast, with no food or water. Services begin the evening before, with Kol Nidre, a prayer sung by the cantor on behalf of all of the people in the congregation about vows undertaken but not completed. Here in Israel, the text covers last year and the next. (So the text is different from that in the Reform prayerbook in the US. More on this later!)

The next day continues with a 5-hour set of services in the morning, then more in the afternoon, continuing until the sun sets. A lot of liturgy, a lot of singing. You have to know a LOT. ( I know SOME.)

We spent 5 hours going through the liturgy, in a typically Israeli meeting. I am my serious, focusing, not-quite-panicked self. They were taking turns talking on their phones, making jokes, singing songs I don't know, talking about past services, and what the guest cantor was supposed to do, and leaving the room and coming back. I had to use my yoga breathing to stay calm.

I spent the next 3 days trying to fit what I know into what was needed. Nearly all of the texts were different from the music I had. Much of the music I had wouldn't work with the text or a capella, or with a Hebrew speaking congregation. In the end, I wrote out a lot of texts and simply made up chants to go with them. "Improvising" is what I called it! Cantor Jack Chomsky from Columbus scanned and emailed me the music for a special text for the Musaf service, from two different transcriptions. I knew the beginning of one, and fortunately, the text in the service here is about half of what it is in the Conservative books in the US, so that's the one I picked. Though I plan to learn the other one, too, for effect! (Thanks, Jack!)

It is against the law to drive for the 25 hours of the fast, so I had to get there early, before they closed all the roads. They found an elderly widow (originally from Argentina, 25 years here) who graciously let me stay with her. What a sweetie! She and I spoke a combination of Hebrew, Spanish and English, and were friends by the evening. She is not religious, and was very worried about my being offended that she was eating and not going to synagogue--of course, I was not, and we were very comfortable together.

In the evening, I dressed in white (but not the dressy-with-stockings I used to wear!) and put on my 10-year-old canvas shoes, and carrying my music stand, walked to the synagogue. I worried a bit about walking home by myself (more about this in a minute.) Then we did the Kol Nidre service, and what I knew, I did, and when I didn't know what to do, I sat, serenely in silence. (Something I have learned to do here!)

When I came out, all of Netanya (in fact, all over the country) was out in the streets! With bikes, scooters, blades, wheelchairs, and on foot--old, young--like a street fair, but without vendors. Just everyone out in the soft night together. Like nothing I have ever experienced!

So I slept peacefully, and got up the next day to do it again!

This was a long day, very different from what I knew before, but amazing fun! As I said, a lot of the words were different, and I have a lot to learn for next year. And I found I wasn't particularly nervous (all those years of chariot racing on the bima at TBS--you know, where every horse has its own reins, and the driver has to control them all) gave me a patience for mistakes, and a pretty good poker face! The reader made mistakes, I made mistakes, we stepped on each other's parts sometimes, and once, I started a song and the congregation took it to another place, but they all knew I was new here and when I was at my best, I was pretty good.

And all that said, even with all I didn't know and the fact that the guy leading the services and I had 5 hours to plan them, it was very successful. And I received the 2 compliments I like best: "I ordinarily don't like a woman's voice doing the traditional prayers, but YOU sound like a CANTOR!" and "You took our prayers to heaven"--and afterwards the family who are notorious for NOT liking anything in the services invited me to break the fast at their home, with their family, where they went on and on about it!

And the rabbi of the synagogue will tell other rabbis, including the one from Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv, who recommended me, and I will work here. And learn what I need to learn. And teach what they need to learn. And make the mark I am on earth to make.

The next evening at Galron rehearsal, my friend Gila told me she sent her nephew's family to the services to hear me, and that after, one of them said that it felt like my voice was "the voice of God"--higher compliment I don't think there is!

So I get my check next week (after I go to the income tax office and get a form that exempts me from paying tax on this income, and register as a freelance worker. The good news is that I know where the office is, and what I need to ask for!)