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February 19, 2010
Beth Israel’s brachot-raiser
Synagogue members connect through the night of 1,000 blessings.
MICHELLE DODEK
A reminder about what is truly important once in a while is something everyone needs. We are all caught up in our busy lives with our important jobs and amazing children, with the Olympics or plans for our next vacation. Beth Israel’s (BI’s) ritual committee devised a simple, small way to help members of their congregation take a tiny step back every day and appreciate their good fortune.
The BI Mitzvah Initiative is an awareness-raising effort. This year, the focus is on food. Judaism offers a couple of mechanisms to help appreciate the food we have. One of the ways is to say an appropriate blessing, bracha, prior to eating or drinking. There is no shortage of brachot from which to choose. The idea of the initiative is for congregants to choose just one each day.
However, for one night only, the committee decided to pull out all of the stops. Dubbed “The Night of 1,000 Blessings,” on Jan. 31, BI members were encouraged to get together with friends and family and say as many appropriate brachot as possible. Afterward, the host was to report the number of brachot recited in order to reach a communal goal of 1,000.
Rabbi Jonathan Infeld said that one of the many goals for the effort was to connect people to shul while at home. “I also hope people will connect to other members of the community as well as to create a sense of community in the congregation outside of the synagogue,” he said.
It would appear, according to BI program director Gaynor Levin, that the idea was widely embraced. Twenty-six families reported back, with the number of brachot from each table ranging from 12 to 353.
“People were so excited that some of the e-mails were sent right away. One was sent at 10:56 p.m.,” said Levin, who felt people took to this challenge and had tremendous fun with it. The number of blessings recited was a means to an end with a spiritual spin-off. As the people joined in blessing their food, their hosts, their situation in life, they began to appreciate their community and their connection to Judaism and their community.
A whole cross-section of congregants participated – those with small children, families with teenagers and others who just invited adult friends for a nice dinner and a spiritual connection. Many people in the conversion class got together for a dinner; one couple took the idea with them to participate as they traveled to Toronto; one couple reported 12 brachot between the two of them.
Len and Marion Cohen invited 20 guests, including BI Cantor Mike Zoosman, who managed to find so many things to bless that the group reported 353 brachot. The Gumprich family recited 64 blessings, with eight people gathered, because of the variety of unusual foods on the table requiring special blessings. The final tally for the entire event was 1,812 brachot.
The Mitzvah Initiative continues all year with a drop-off box for donations to the Jewish Food Bank at the synagogue. The hope is that each family will bring one item a week, which would result in more than 30,000 donations.
Michele Dodek is a freelance writer living in Vancouver.
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