Shabbes #2 in Huanuco

7:30am Sunday July 17, 2011

This Shabbes I felt much more comfortable. I was able actively participate in conversations and know more or less what was going on; I knew what to expect.  We had our Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv.  For Kabbalat Shabbat, my melodies (traditional Carlebach) are still mostly foreign to them, but they embrace the melodies and ask if I have recordings of them or whether I can write out sheet music with those melodies so that they can better learn them. After our Shabbat dinner, I introduce a new tradition of saying a blessing after a meal in the form of singing Bendigamos. Bendigamos is a hymn sung according to the custom of Spanish and Portuguese Jews.  I’ve only heard it song 3 times in my life–once at the New York Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, once at Neve Shalom in Istanbul, and the last time in the famous Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam.  Nonetheless, Bendigamos is a great alternative to Birkat Hamazon for this Huanuco community, because the song is in their vernacular and is much more concise than the normal Birkat Hamazon.  It’s clearly a hashkafic decision and not a halachic decision to introduce Bendigamos instead of Birkat Hamazon, but I think that this is a tradition, that in the long run will benefit the community more and keep more people connected to Judaism.

  

(Bendigamos al Altísimo,

Al Señor que nos crió,

Démosle agradecimiento

Por los bienes que nos dió.

Alabado sea su Santo Nombre,

Porque siempre nos apiadó.

Load al Señor que es bueno,

Que para siempre su merced.

...

Hodu Lashem ki tov,

Ki leolam jasdo.)

The community only has siddurim for Friday night, not Saturday Shacharit (Morning Service), so it is difficult to have a service Saturday morning without prayerbooks. We have a 6pm Mincha/Maariv/Havdalah, which is more like a group sing along plus Havdalah.  But I’m fine with that. After Havdalah we had a cute Melavah Malka (post-Shabbes party) with a cake that said “Communidad Judía” (Jewish community).  The idea of the Melaveh Malkah was also to continue teaching about the Jewish holidays while enjoying some sweet. I guess my thinking was similar to the old Jewish tradition involving honey and teaching. Parents teaching the Yiddish/Hebrew alphabet to their children would put honey on each letter so that their children would lick their fingers while learning to read and thus have a sweet association with learning. In our case, in place of honey we had cake; and in place of the alphabet, we learned about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.

"Jewish Community" Cake

After our quick class on Jewish holidays, I decided to teach a few individuals about berachot. While I was becoming more observant at Yeshivat Orayta, I remember that one of the things that really spoke to me was the idea of berachot–pausing for a second or two before eating– not necessarily even using the language dictated by the Sages, but perhaps using my vernacular, or even just meditating for a moment on the thought of gratefulness for having food.  Until last night, the only berachot that we’d been using for food were pri hagafen, hamotzi and she’hakol (for anything else). I didn’t want to overwhelm or confuse the community by having to explain hamotzi, pri ha’etz, pri ha’adamah, mezonot, shehakol.  I finally was able to find Spanish resources on berachot, thanks to Rabbi Juan Mejía, and so I decided that it was time, hoping that they would be as awed by the beauty of berachot over food as I am.