Dear Haverim,
I have always loved the ocean and I have always loved Judaism, so to be able to join for Shabbat, as the sun descends, on a Friday evening at the ocean, feels truly magical.
As a child growing up in Philadelphia, my family vacationed, for a few weeks each summer, in Beach Haven, South New Jersey’s equivalent of a Catskills Jewish Bungalow colony. As a teenager, I “walked the boards” with my friends on the (pre-Casino) Atlantic City boardwalk.
As a college student at Penn, I had a part-time job as a synagogue youth group director, which included several “kinusim”/conferences at the South Jersey Shore. In fact, one of the reasons that I’m a rabbi today is because I met several inspiring rabbis, so many decades ago, at those gatherings.
Becoming the rabbi of University Synagogue, over 3 decades ago, reunited my love of Judaism and the ocean and gave me the opportunity, in the summer, to lead monthly Shabbat services at Laguna Beach’s Crescent Bay Point Park. Although, like most of us, I rarely go the beach (which all of us should really do much more often, given that we are blessed to live here). I’m comforted by knowing that I’m just 15 minutes from the ocean and by remembering and re-experiencing the spiritual role that nature has always played in my life.
When Judaism began, it was lived outdoors. After all, that’s what a semi-nomadic people have to do. Our main festivals were tied to the harvest cycle, even after we became urbanized 3000 years ago. In addition, Jews have always been “Shomrei Adama” – guardians of the earth – protecting nature, animals and plant life and stressing the mitzvah of “Bal Tashchit”/do not destroy nature. We are urged to be stewards of the earth, skies and oceans, using only what we need and never wasting it.
So, please join us this Friday evening, July 21, at 6:15 p.m., for a bring-your-own dairy dinner, and/or a 7:00 p.m. brief and breezy Shabbat service on a cliff overlooking the ocean at Crescent Bay Point Park in Laguna Beach. (Click here to RSVP; since this service will be outside, Livestream will not be available.) There’s an amphitheater for the service, but we usually run out of space, so please bring beach chairs.
Also, please bring friends, dogs and wandering Jews and non-Jews, and celebrate nature and Shabbat by the ocean. It’ll be an opportunity not only to recall memories, but to create some new ones, as well. We’ll also celebrate July birthdays and anniversaries and we’ll have fun opportunities for children.
Let’s celebrate our love of nature and Judaism together this Shabbat!
Shavua Tov/Have a wonderful week in nature,
Rabbi Arnie Rachlis
