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Community Corner

Nachshon Minyan to Hold High Holy Day Services at Sportsmen's Lodge

Synagogue without walls infuses the old with the new.

“When the Israelites stood by the Sea of Reeds, each tribe was unwilling to be the first to enter the sea. Then sprang forward Nachshon the son of Aminadav from the tribe of Judah and descended first into the sea… the sea saw Nachshon and fled.” –The Babyolonian Talmud

This is my favorite biblical moment, when the Israelites are fleeing from enslavement in Egypt–as we are directed to remove ourselves every day from the constrictions, restrictions and addictions we’ve created–they come to a dead stop at the edge of the sea. With Pharaoh’s army behind them and nothing but water in front of them, only Nachshon has the courage to take those first terrifying steps into the unknown. So dedicated is he to pursuing liberation, he walks until he is nose deep in the water. One more step and he will drown.  Only then do the waters part and he sings, practically gargles,  “Mi Kamocha ba’Elim Adonai?” Who is like You, making wondrous miracles?

It was the same kind of courage and trust in God that moved Cantor Judy Greenfeld to step into her unknown future and found the Nachson Minyan five years ago as an alternative to regular synagogue congregations. Her goal was to “reach out to people who have been disillusioned–the unaffiliated, and the ‘unfulfilliated’–and give them something that is educational, personal and beautiful.” Their unlikely house of worship is the in Studio City.

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I first knew of Greenfeld, a former professional dancer, when she and Tamar Frankiel were teaching Jewish prayer through movement at the biannual convocation of Aleph, the Jewish Renewal organization. Together they taught around the country and wrote two books about using movement in Jewish meditation and prayer, Minding the Temple of the Soul and Entering the Temple of Dreams.

Greenfeld later entered LA’s Academy for Jewish Religion, earning cantorial ordination and a master’s degree in Jewish Sacred Music. She has released two CDs, Leap of Faith: The Nachshon Minyan Sings the Sabbath and When You Lie Down and When You Rise Up: Jewish prayers to begin and end your day in a meaningful way.

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She sang and chanted for eight years at Temple Emmanuel of Beverly Hills alongside the congregation’s rabbis before striking out on her own five years ago with Nachshon Minyan. The group started out meeting in Greenfeld and her husband Michael’s Encino home with ten families. She bar and bat mitzvahed all their children.

“Legally I’m a minister. A cantor can do exact same job as rabbi.”  And that includes funerals and weddings. Greenfeld is one of the few Conservative Jewish clergy to perform interfaith marriages.

“What technically makes Conservative Jews Conservative is they follow the laws, the halachah, and that turns Jews away.  But I marry a Jew and a non-Jew. I think it needs some ‘amendments to the constitution.’ I want to breathe some fresh air into it,” Greenfeld unabashedly declares.

Now, with a hundred member families, the Minyan has a part-time staff that includes Rabbi Jay Siegel, Hebrew teacher Edith Fried, an executive director and the cantor’s assistant.

In order to provide a religious school, Torah study and Sabbath and holiday services, the congregation meets at three different locations. It’s important to Greenfeld to shield the community from the burden of building ownership.

“There’s been more stress on who has the money to build these institutions and I won’t let that rule me,” she insists. “I don’t think rabbis and cantors, they weren’t always CEOs.”

The Greenfelds’ estate in Encino is where she hosts all adult education classes and her four women’s Torah study groups including one that is studying for adult b’nai mitzvot.

“I approach Torah from a biblical standpoint, a historical standpoint, and symbolically and metaphorically. And most importantly I make it relevant in people’s daily life,” Greenfeld told me. “I’m here to share with you the knowledge I have that was handed down by the ancients and it’s really great stuff and I’m really impassioned by it and it’s changed my life.”

She still uses the technique of praying with the body in teaching the religious school students, grades K through 6 and beyond, who meet at Los Encinos School, right behind her house.

“I use a kinesthetic approach to teaching the letters. We have a prayer garden. I listen to them, fill them with music. I want to make Judaism relevant in their lives,” Greenfeld says. “In order to come to school, the families have to be members, because I’m trying to create a community.”

Friday night family Sabbath services and dinner take place once a month at Los Encinos School. Saturday morning services, preceded by Torah study, are held twice a month at the Sportsmen’s Lodge. Upcoming High Holiday Services will take place at the Lodge as well. 

It is Nachshon Minyan tradition to invite special guests for the holidays. Previous speakers include Judea Pearl, father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl; Eva Kor, a Mengele survivor who became famous for publicly forgiving the Nazis’ Angel of Death; representatives from the Paperclips Project and from Freedom Writers; and last year columnist and radio host Dennis Prager.

This year Greenfeld invited two Israeli soldiers representing the group Hope for Heroism, a non-profit “created and run by disabled Israeli officers, which gives critical and immediate help to disabled Israeli combat soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the safety of the Jewish people” according to the foundation’s Web site.

“I have a community that doesn’t love Israel,” says Greenfeld. “I want them to be curious about Israel. We’ve got war going on right now. These young men sacrificed their youth and their life.”

Greenfeld takes special pride in the Minyan’s prayer book which she compiled and edited from multiple sources. The prayers are written in three columns: Hebrew, English and transliteration.

“So many Jews feel like outsiders because they don’t read Hebrew. I try to take those blocks away and invite people in.”

On the page opposite the prayers, the book contains poetry and what the cantor calls “factoids: when was this prayer created, who created it, why is it in the prayer book. Any way they can step into the prayer is important.”

And because music is so important to Cantor Greenfeld, the service will be sung by an intergenerational choir. “We have a musical director who has written original music but I also hold onto the old melodies. We spend a lot of time trying to infuse the traditional with the new.”

The complete holiday schedule and ticket information can be found on the Nachshon Minyan Web site.

“Synagogues without walls, independent minyanim, that’s where change can happen. That’s exciting. People want something new and I wanted that as well. There’s a large drop off of Jews who are staying connected to their synagogues. Something’s missing and it’s something that I can provide.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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