There’s a robust Jewish worth, elu v’elu, meaning “these and people.” As in, each these and people concepts have benefit. Each these and people folks include a holy spark. Each this and that reply could be proper.
Once I moved from Tucson to L.A. in 1997, I left a higher metro space of a bit of over half one million folks for a metropolis with a bit of over half one million Jews. I rapidly discovered that regardless of being raised Jewish, I knew solely a sliver in regards to the range of Jewish experiences. I’d by no means heard of elu v’elu, however being in Los Angeles helped me uncover it.
As a pupil at USC, I joined Jewish campus organizations. A rabbi there helped me notice that though I used to be far much less discovered than the traditional sages, my very own concepts in regards to the faith had validity. I started to outline what being Jewish meant to me. These and people.
Working at a manufacturing firm, I got here to grasp how Hollywood’s arts elevated Jewish ritual throughout the town. It was revelatory to see a Torah portion introduced as a play, hear a sermon within the type of poetry. I bought married. We watched outdated Yiddish motion pictures with pals and browse modern Jewish playwrights.
I met younger Argentine Jewish mother and father at a backyard co-op in Santa Monica and outdated Russian Jews at a group backyard in Hollywood. The previous had been instructing their kids liturgy in English, Hebrew and Spanish, and the latter had deserted organized Judaism however frolicked nearly solely with different outdated Russian Jews. Absorbing their contrasting histories and life, asking query after query, helped me perceive what was most significant to me. Elu v’elu. And nonetheless, all of us grew Persian cucumbers and little yellow pear tomatoes.
I’d by no means met a rabbi who wished to check Talmud with younger adults — I’d by no means studied Talmud in any respect — till coming to Los Angeles. However in an un-air-conditioned room of a group middle one sizzling night time, I traced my fingers over layers of rabbinic interpretation and the traditional code of Jewish regulation, every perception constructed on the opposite. Elu v’elu, these commentaries, and people.
At Rabbi Sharon Brous’ IKAR synagogue, I discovered about justice by way of a Jewish lens, and about activism. I started to think about Jewish texts as an historic know-how, one by way of which — whether or not by agreeing or vehemently disagreeing with the concepts — I may filter the urgent questions of recent life. These and people.
My years residing within the Jewish enclave of Pico-Robertson had been a cultural and sensory feast. On Friday nights, as we settled into our Shabbat meal with our younger kids, we may hear “Shalom Aleichem” sung to completely different tunes, and with completely different numbers of repetitions of the verses, mixing with the voices at our desk. Our Jewish neighbors crossed the spectrum from extraordinarily observant to completely secular. These and people.
I not dwell in L.A. Earlier than I left, my tattoo artist, a local Hebrew speaker, inked the Hebrew names of my kids on my arms, together with an enormous jacaranda. Now, after I cowl my eyes and welcome Shabbat every week, I’m typically considering of the neighborhoods and folks of Los Angeles, from Boyle Heights to Topanga Canyon, and particularly alongside Pico Boulevard.
I keep in mind the Persian, Afghan, Bukharian, Yemeni, Iraqi and Moroccan neighbors whose traditions made their means into my spiritual apply. I keep in mind the enjoyment of strolling down Pico through the competition of Sukkot and the scent of cheesecake that accompanies Shavuot within the air. Once I uncover my eyes, I take my choose of all these Shabbat songs and begin to sing. My melodies and the textual content aren’t static and, as I discovered in L.A., neither is my Jewish identification. These and people.
Jessica Elisheva Emerson’s first novel, “Olive Days,” is a couple of Los Angeles lady’s seek for Jewish identification.
