Homey Don't Pray That

For the chag, I managed to hit up three shuls in under thirty hours--a personal record, and I'm proud. I snuck into Anshe Chesed (don't believe your friends when they say that no one checks tickets for Ne'ilah)--and was struck by the humor of a still-a-"Millenial"-even-though-I-graduated-college sneaking in to services.

I liked having a holiday with a lot of different things going on, the different melodies, the different agendas of of rabbinical and lay leaders. Susan told me on the phone this morning how surprised she was to have really enjoyed Yom Kippur this year, and I realized how much I had enjoyed mine as well--everywhere I went there were friendly faces, and I took a very long walk in the bright sunshine up to Jenn's apartment before mincha. Usually, being a Wandering Jew (not having a set shul of my own) makes me feel sad, or, alternately, depressingly young and unfinished--like I'm still tied to the excuse that I'm in school, or just not ready to settle down yet.

But this yontif I really experienced the pleasant side of treating synagogue life as a pick-your-own adventure. The fact of the matter is that I'm really not prepared to settle into one steady pattern of shul life. It was lovely to be davening with a totally unfamiliar set of people, and, given that two of the services I attended were free, I had access to a really interesting cross-section of New York Jewish life. (More on why it's demoralising for shuls to be capitalising on High Holidayism some other time.)

I'm going to make a more conscious effort to enjoy the opportunities I have (and can further create) to go out and sow me some wild shul-oats. I feel as though I've spent a lot of time recently meditating on how the profusion of JewLife in New York causes people to almost burn out a little, and although all of the conversations have focused on cultural activities, I wonder if the same isn't true of synagogue participation. Although it's wonderful to find that Special One that fulfills all your spiritual needs, I imagine it can be informative, diverting or downright healthy to go out and explore a little bit. That's right: I'm advocating Shul Non-Monogamy.

That said, here is a partial listing of shuls across the city:http://www.ecben.net/nysynagogues.shtml. Maybe it's not the most comprehensive ever, but they should be forgiven, because they show the borough flags.

So enjoy. Go be a player, yo!
Kol tov...