The Family that prays together...

Well, let's make that - "that prays period" will do me fine.

I did something I had been jones'ing for in a long while. Almost in the same way that a newly stopped smoker jones' when someone lights up at a party. I had been jones'ing for a good old-time-religion, tie-one-on, throw-another-gratitude-offering-on-the-barby, prayer meetin'

So off I went to a newish chavurah-type congregation that meets at one of the now not-so-used JCC complexes, near by. It was amazing. I hadn't felt the kinship to pray like that in a long time. The singing, the chanting, the shuckling and the bowing. Just what I needed to move thru to temple service with a bunch of similar thinking, G-d hunting, not over the hill, Jews. A bunch of folks just like me.

Families, extended and growing families. The Rabbi is a dynamic and thoughtful woman. A get-up-and-do-something-because-you-know-it-is-the-right-thing-to-do leader.

I felt like a neo-Hassid with a thru-and-thru progressive commitment to the Jewish people.

I felt good.

I felt G-d.

I cried as I sat with my talit conered hand in front of my eyes, reciting the sh'ma. I haven't cried in ever so long. Surrounded by a kahal that was singing my song, it felt so safe and right to cry at that point of the service.

I was home again after a long absence. Not from schule, because I have been looking for this experience for an age, but absent from a true spiritual experience that melds with my level of depth.

More, I am sure, to follow.