By Donald H. Harrison
POWAY, California — So well-situated is Congregation Ner Tamid for Fourth of July fireworks, the Conservative congregation can depend on attracting a big crowd to its hilltop location. Which means of course that congregants not only can enjoy barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers (kosher of course!) but also can conduct some synagogue business and promote a good cause.
While the skies was still light, and there was plenty of time to get back to card and lawn chairs to view the fireworks from a taped-off section of the parking lot, congregational President Mitchell Freedman quietly passed among the crowd, tapping this one on the shoulder, whispering in that one’s ear, until more than a quorum had slipped into the sanctuary to conduct what was described as some routine board of directors’ business . All the machers were back before anyone really missed them, with Friedman exulting out loud: “That must have been the shortest board meeting on record!”
Elsewhere, a number of congregational members had set up a booth under the sign “We Are Here,” their mission to recruit members of Ner Tamid Synagogue for a new service group to visit the sick and the mourners, and to do such other good deeds (mitzvoth) as might be required by the congregational membership.
Charlie Riemer said that the idea was developed by congregants in consultation with Rabbi Nadav Caine and that while the group still was in its formative stages, he expected the group would be up and going by the end of the month. Already the group has sent out some cards of congratulations for simchas as well as cards of condolences.
Another kind of cards — those used for blackjack and poker–were employed, with appropriate amounts of kibbutzing, at other tables set up nearby. My five year old grandson, with grandma’s coaching, learned a few finer points of blackjack.
Amid the 4th of July celebrants were many decked out in red, white, and blue, and a loudspeaker was hooked up to a local radio station broadcasting patriotic songs. Augmenting the radio show were some Ner Tamid singers of whom any youth choir would be proud: Sarah Feinman and Kayla Schaffroth.
“The Founding Fathers (of the United States) were influenced by the Torah’s contribution of democracy without any tyranny to this world,” Rabbi Caine commented. “The revelation God gave us was that whenever you have a king, you have tyranny like Pharaoh.” While the Torah discouraged having kings “we only get kings — Saul, David and Solomon– much later in the Bible, and when the people clamored for a king so the tribes will unite to defeat the Philistines, it was a lot like the 13 colonies uniting against King George. They wanted George Washington to be a king but they turned it down…”
At 9 p.m. fireworks fired from neighboring Rancho Bernardo lit up the Poway sky, with each burst drawing some appreciative comments and even, in some cases, applause. Congregational youth sang along with radio music intended to be synchronized with the fireworks display. Following the finale, lawn and card chairs were folded, put into the trunks of cars, and the place of gathering soon turned back into an empty parking lot. It was a happy, and quite satisfactory, Fourth.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com