Get Your Jew On(line)

Tonight the Wilshire Boulevard Temple - Los Angeles' oldest synagogue - will make history and set a precedent by being the first temple to broadcast its Kol Nidre service over the internet. I'm going to watch and listen.

I've been thinking about it all day. I could attend a service at the synagogue down the street (at a hefty cost b/c I'm not a congregation member), or I could make the trek into Cambridge and pretend to be a Harvard student in order to get into the Hillel, or I could try something new. After much consideration, I decided that it's worth it to me to give this a shot (and besides, if I'm trying to be inscribed in the book of life, it might not look too good if I'm impersonating a Harvard student and 'sneaking' into Hillel).

There are already bloggers going back and forth about whether this is a bad idea. One rabbi (yes, they blog too) said that this is "truly a sad day for Judaism." I respectfully disagree. In my mind, this is a use of technology that positively benefits the Jewish community by bringing those who would otherwise be unable to attend services into the fold. There are undoubtedly thousands of people out there who, for whatever reason, cannot get to temple tonight. Perhaps illness prevents them from leaving the house. Perhaps they live in a remote area and cannot feasibly get to a temple; there are many Jews who are walking to temple tonight rather than driving, so that stipulation puts increased pressure on those who are far from temples.

The devil's advocate in me argues that because I am healthy and have a temple near me, I should take advantage of my ability to leave my home and go to temple. A solid point. But this opportunity fascinates me. I want to see if I feel the same way I do when I'm in temple and I hear the music of the high holy days.

Part of the reason that I go to temple on the major holidays is because the experience of being in a room with thousands of other people, knowing that at that very moment there are many more doing the same all over the world, is awesome in the original sense of that word. I feel like I owe it to myself to see what would happen if I were to place myself in a solitary place (my apartment) but still be connected to the greater Jewish community. It'll obviously be very different, but I want to see & feel what it's like. Maybe I'll learn something about my perceptions of temple and what "congregation" means; the only Kol Nidre services I've ever been to have been at the Port Washington Community Synagogue (and services at college weren't very convincing; the Jewish organizations had to rent out seminar rooms at the student center).

I don't need a minyan to feel a sense of awe. I would feel out of place by myself at an unfamiliar temple, and besides, I feel there's something strange about synagogues charging non-members $150 for a reserved seat ($80 for "balcony"). This is a time of atonement and prayer, not a Springsteen concert. Most of all, though - I'm just really curious. I'm going to take it as seriously as I would a Kol Nidre service back in Port Washington - I will not have any distractions, I will put on formal clothing, I will follow along with the prayers, and I will fast tomorrow. And at this point, I'm thoroughly looking forward to tonight's service.

Whether it's a good experience or a bad one, it will be an experience. Keeping one's mind open to new ideas seems to be a very important part of Judaism anyway - think of the orange on the Seder plate, the Torah study groups that happen every week (how amazing is it that a book written thousands of years ago is still being discussed and debated?), and references to ourselves as "the Chosen People" are diminishing in the face of maintaining Jewish integrity without demeaning others - so this new use of technology does not really surprise me. In fact, my only source of surprise is that it hasn't been done before.