Today was a day of religious contrasts.
It started out with my having to attend a funeral for a long-time contributor to LA ACM. This funeral was held in a Catholic church, and it was my first time seeing a Catholic service and mass as an adult (I think I saw one once as a kid). I found myself looking at the beautiful building, but for someone non-Catholic, there was nothing in the service. They didn’t provide a key to the canned responses, so someone who wasn’t Catholic was completely lost. I guess if you’ve been brought up in it, it works; I found it difficult to understand.
This evening was another story. As folks may have guessed, we’re back to “shul shopping”. Tonight, we went to Temple Beth Hillel in North Hollywood. You would think an 800+ family congregation would be cold. Not this one. It was even warmer (i.e., friendlier, or haimish) than our current small congregation. The repartee between the Rabbi and Cantor was great (especially when the Rabbi had trouble finding the starting place in the Torah because someone had misrolled the scrolls). The people were extremely friendly, and were glad to have us there and were extremely accessible. This is a good place.
Tomorrow is a family day, as we go to Malibu for the Y-Princesses Spring Family Campout, when “Little Bunny” graduates from the Y Princesses program.
