Thank You For The Chance

In an email sent to Rabbi Eliezer Lazaroff of Chabad House at Texas Medical Center, a woman who attended Rosh Hashana services wrote: “I wanted to say thank you for opening your doors for the High Holidays. It has been many years since I have attended a Rosh Hashana service, and I greatly appreciated the warmth and spiritual boost I got from the services yesterday. Especially hearing the shofar, live, for the first time in over 30 years.”

The email was signed by Susan W., but it might have been written by hundreds of others.

As Shluchim on campuses and communities worldwide continue to report on their High Holiday services, the numbers indicate a greater responsiveness to the spiritual wake-up call of Rosh Hashana. So many this year chose to devote the days of the Jewish New Year to prayer and traditional observances. Everywhere, Chabad –Lubavitch representatives say they discerned a deeper desire to connect, and an attentiveness to the New Year’s promise of forgiveness and renewal.

Rabbi Dov Greenberg of Chabad of Stanford tapped into the mood. “How have we used our time in the past year? What did we do with that most precious gift of all?” he asked at the Rosh Hashana services. Although Stanford’s fall semester begins after the High Holidays, 70 students chose to join Chabad’s campus Rosh Hashana services, where Greenberg’s commentary and insights made it a meaningful experience.

In the Far East, seating for 1,000 was set up on the beach in Ko Samui, Thailand, which, as it turned out, wasn’t enough. In Bangkok, 850 joined Chabad services, and in Chiang Mai, the number hovered just above 600.

Closer to home, in Oceanside, New York, Rabbi Levi Gurkov drew a record number of 500 on day one of Rosh Hashana, and 400 the following day. In Boca Raton, Rabbi Moshe Denburg led services for 500, and 100 children at a junior Rosh Hashana program. Russian language services were conducted by Chabad in many places coast to coast: in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, 220 Russian immigrants joined Chabad for services. (Across the Former Soviet Union, Chabad in conjunction with the Federation of Jewish Communities held services in 426 synagogues and community centers spanning 10 time zones.)

An unexpected additional 70 showed up at a beginners’ minyan in Sharon Mass., many of whom, says Rabbi Chaim Wolosow, “came for the first time to services at Chabad, and possibly the first time that they ever attended Rosh Hashana services.”

“Every boardroom, conference room and ballroom was used at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza Hotel,” says Rabbi Moshe Bryski, executive director of Chabad of the Conejo, in California, which counted 1500 participants. In addition, services were held at five other locations in the Conejo for another 600. “We also had 300 children attending our Youth Shul and Camp ‘Gan Hyatt,’” he says.

It wasn’t the numbers, however, that impressed Rabbi Avrohom Wolowik of Naperville, Illinois. In fact, he says, “we did not have very large services. But one 87 year old woman showed up. She has not stepped into a shul in 18 years.”

Rabbi Eliezer Shemtov is the Chabad-Lubavitch representative to Uruguay. After conducting Rosh Hashana services for 150, he visited the local prison where he blew shofar for Jewish inmates. At the Texas Medical Center, Rabbi Eliezer Lazaroff and Rabbi Yitzchok Schmukler followed a similar routine. After conducting Rosh Hashana services for a full house, they spent the day going from bed to bed, blowing Shofar for every Jewish patient.

It is an exhausting activity, but a prevalent tradition among Chabad shluchim worldwide. Inspired by legendary stories about how the broken wails of the ram’s horn often stirred a lonely Jew to the depths of his soul, Shluchim will walk miles to share the mitzvah with those who thought they were forgotten.

As Susan wrote in her email: “Hearing the prayers, and the sound of the shofar gave me an intense feeling for my heritage, and has increased my desire to reclaim my religious affiliations and traditions.

”Thank you again, for the opportunity to attend, and the chance to renew myself.”