Rosh Hashana: Tico Style

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First, we'd like to say shana tovah to everyone! May this year bring you much happiness, health, love, and peace. May you be inscribed in the book of life.

So, many of you know that today is the Jewish new year--Rosh Hashana. And as any nice Jewish girl would do, I went to synagogue to hear the shofar blow, eat a little apples and honey, and listen to the cantor sing. However, today's service was a little more exotic.

Peter and I ventured out into San Jose to find the only reform synagogue in town. First, they wanted to charge us $175...EACH! Aye caramba!! Then, she offered us $90 total. We looked at each other like "uhhh....wtf...where's our cab?" Next she told us she'd give us the student discount of $35 each. You should have seen the generosity in her eyes when she said "Ok, $70, that's it. I can't go any lower." Still, no bueno. When it was all said and done, we bought our tickets for $20 each. Not sooooo bad...little did we know, this price also included an all-you-can-eat-Rosh-Hashana-gluten-full-buffet. Whoop whoop! That's the reward you receive when you stay until the end of services!!

The service was led by an Argentinian husband-wife Rabbi team. Needless to say about half the service was in Hebrew, but about 1/4 of it was in English and a 1/4 in Spanish! So not only did I feel closer to G-d, but I also got to practice my Spanish! Muy bien!! Poor Peter, on the other hand, spent 3/4 of the 3 hour service in la-la-land (AKA mu-mu-land, for all of you Czech readers...).

Apparently, they knew Peter would be attending services, and as not to have him feel left-out, they displayed a Torah donated from...wait for it...the Czech Republic!! (a small pre-WWII Jewish town) B'shert!

Overall, the people were warm, welcoming, and Sephardi (not including your hand-full of token east coast Jews who have retired in Costa Rica). Looking back, it is a very heart-warming experience to know that no matter where you go, there's always someone Jewish (thanks, Debbie Friedman).

V mem kratkem ceskem okenku bych jen doplnil ze zkusenot to byla ... zajimava a konvertovat nehodlam! Ma prvni navsteva synagogy, ve ktere bohosluzba probihala zpola v hebrejstine a zpola ve spanelstine (prlozeno nekolika anglickymi versi) mela rekneme rozpacity prubeh. A oslava noveho roku na konci zari, bez sampana a petard...no posudte sami :-). Prece se ale najde par zajimavych bodu ktere bych rad vypichl. Jeden uz zminila Ilene v anglickem vstupu a to ten, kdyz po nas chteli za vstup do Synagogy v prepoctu asi 5000Kc. Druhym zajimavym momentem dne bylo, kdyz si tak stojim u zdi a koukam na tu mega Thoru co jim tam visi, ktera byla az do Kostariky dovezena - svete div se - z Bechyne. Cesi jsou vsude!!! No a nakonec - posramoceny dojem z zidovske bohosluzby ve spanelstine napravila zaverecna hostina s vinem a vanockou :D. Byla sice plna lepku, ale kdo by odolal po 3 hodinach sezeni v lavici a poslechu taaamaaarianaaa ooohaciuhela.

Zaverem bych dodal, ze zidovska bohosluzba me vyznamne nepoznamenala, coz jsem vsak na zacatku cekal. I tak ale bylo moc zajimavy a hezky videt, co zidovstvi a vse co k nemu patri znamena pro Ilene. A o to vlastne slo!

B'shalom,
Ilene & Peter

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Ta Mariana oho Cuhela zpivali?:D