Dear Sharon,

I want to thank you and everyone for one of the most memorable Rosh Hashana I ever had. It was the first JDCC service I ever went to and hopefully it won’t be the last. You see every year, I get bored at service. When it comes time to blow the shofar, I always slightly raise my hands and whisper in a jest “Me! Me! Me!” I was in for a surprise when all eyes turned to me and told me to get up there and brow. If I had been in a regular synagogue, I doubt I would have the opportunity to do this. The whole service would have been scripted out before hand. However at the JDCC, the plan was changed to fit the circumstance and this was the absolute beauty of the service – the spontaneousness and warmth of the people.

It reminds me of the story about the young illiterate shepherd. His father took him to Rosh Hashana service one day. He was so moved by the service, that he asked his father if coup play the flute. The father said no. He kept asking repeatedly until his father took the flute away from him. Finally the little boy was overwhelmed by emotion and he seized the flute and started blowing through the flute creating a wonderful melodious sound. The entire congregation was very angry and were about to seize and throw him out when the Rabbi, the Baal Shem Tov stood up and yelled “Wait! Leave the boy alone. Up until now, our prayers were always blocked at the heavenly gates. But today this young boys music carried all our prayers straight up to G-d himself.” I felt like that little boy that day I blew the shofar.

The moral of the story is that we are all different and pray to G-d differently.. We have to be ourselves. The beginning of the Amidah, we pray “Blessed the Lord our G-d, the G-d of our father, the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob. . .” Why did it not say The G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” after all isn’t it the same G-d? The answer I like to believe is each one of these person worshipped G-d in their own way. We all must be ourselves and pray to G-d in our own way.

I applaud the JDCC for changing the format to go back to the basic and for the flexibility and spontaneousness. I gather many religious people will argue that it is counterproductive to deviate from the traditional way. But faced with high assimilation rate and problems the Deaf people face in a hearing society, we must be ourselves and learn to pray in our own way.

I thank everyone at the JDCC and my friend Jana for allowing me the opportunity to be myself and look forward to meeting everyone again in the near future. Warmest. P.S. H no one wishes to play the shofar next year, I would be honored to play it again.

Eric Brody
Santa Barbara, CA

Dear Sharon,

Thank you.for being so kind to Steven. He felt very welcome at services and enjoyed meeting people et the Rosh Hashana lunch. Please keep his name on the list for future activities. Best wishes to your family for a year filled with love and peace.

Diane Surfas
Malibu, CA

Dear Sharon,

I want to thank you for JDCC giving me the opportunity to participate High Holiday service. Too bad I missed the Yom Kippur service, because I got hurt in the mountain. Ira, Jeff, and Steve were good job to teach us about High Holiday and also you, too! Shalom.

Heidi Zimmer
Ventura. CA