How an Evangelical Minister helped save My Yom Kippur

It's a dark and stormy Friday night in Culver City. I sit in my car and listen to the rain pound all around me. I have 11 hours to solve a very large problem and do not know where to start. Understand that an hour ago I had 1,500 congregants very unhappy with me. You see, I am the head of the volunteer sound crew for our Temple's High Holy days. Like many medium sized Temples we go to a large venue for High Holy Day services. Let's just say the sound did not go well for Kol Nidre. We have a Cantor, Choir, Cello, Piano, and Soloist for this service. The sound cut out every five seconds. We bring all of our own gear except for the speakers. Our sound board was fine, all 13 of the microphones where good, and the monitor on stage was crisp and clear. Something in the House's amp and speakers just did not like us. Anything with a continuous tone dropped out. We had spent hours at rehearsal trying to fix the problem, but it was sporadic and none of us are real sound engineers. We went with what we had and it was much worse than rehearsal. Listening to my Cantor chant Kol Nidre and having every head turn and look at me every few seconds wanting you to fix the problem is not fun. There was nothing we could do with the service going. As it ended I got my share of peoples feelings on the issue, our Choir director was not exactly thrilled either, three months of hard work had gone into the planning and preparation for tonight. I had to do something.

As I sit in my car outside the venue, I am the last one there. I have locked up our gear for the night and promised the Rabbi I will make it better for Yom Kippur Services tomorrow. I have no idea how yet, but I will. An SUV pulls up in front of me with a large metal tub sticking out the back. They start trying to get into the venue and unloading this tub. I am about to leave but I stop. We have all of our gear locked inside, who are these people? What is that thing? I get out and introduce my self and ask who they are. They are a local church who uses the venue on Sunday's for there services. The tub is a portable baptismal they keep at the venue and they are returning from a baptism. It's awkward to move a baptismal, even more so in the dark, rain, and with the loading dock locked. I offer to help them get it inside. They have never met a religious Reform Jew before. This sparks some very interesting and entertaining conversations on both sides. Since they use the venue I ask them how they deal with the sound issues, maybe they know the trick to it? It turns out that they had similar problems for there first few weeks there and had to go buy all there own speakers. "So you have speakers?" I asked. Not only do they have speakers but the minister in charge of them is just down the block having movie night at the youth center.

I convinced one of them to come introduce me to Him. The sky has opened up even more, rain harder than I remember it ever raining in LA, it's like Philadelphia in August. We run down the street. With not a dry spot on me and holding my Yarmulke to my head I walk into a room full of Christian Youth. I find the minster and start talking to him. They are packing up there gear for the night. I help them take down the sound gear and movie system while asking if there is anything they can do to help me out. There are many side conversations about what it's like being Jewish, and how it's not all about Bar Mitzvahs. They said I knew way more about Judaism than any other Jew they had met and wanted to know if I went to school for it. I indeed had, Gratz College in Philadelphia and Hebrew School at my temple growing up. I gave them a little Jewish History, explained the difference between the different sects of Judaism. Let me make it clear, I am not a Jewish scholar by a long shot and I have friends that know way more about this stuff than me. They only Jewish people these kids had met where purely cultural Jews, they only joined temples because of there Bar Mitzvahs or because there parents made them. It was eye opening for everyone I think. After we finished packing the gear we had to get it back to there storage area. This meant carrying a lot of sound gear in the rain. As wrapped up as we could get it I helped them run the gauntlet.

At the storage area the minister and I talked for a while before He let me borrow four power speakers for the services tomorrow. I would be with the gear every moment it was outside of lockup. I wrote out a contract listing all the items and wrote all my drivers license information on it. Not because of any fear of mistrust on either of our parts, but just out of safety and responsibility for the gear. I was borrowing $2000 in sound equipment that they needed the day after next and He had only met me an hour ago. With the gear safely locked up at the venue I made a list things to go buy and borrow first thing in the morning and went home. I didn't sleep, couldn't eat or drink as the fast had started. I just starred at the ceiling and prayed this would all work. My wife was awake too, it was 7 days past her due date for the baby. She could go into labor at any moment. My clocked blinked 7am, and I put on my shirt. Not any shirt mind you, BatJew. A mostly forgotten character in a popular online comic strip. There where shirts of the logo made a long time ago. I still have one, I love it, my Rabbi loves it, and it has always brought me good luck. Normally it's something I wear for Purim but today I was going to need all the strength I could muster.

A quick run to home depot for power cables and calls out to friends with XLR splitters and others on the sound crew and it's time to build a new sound system. While we franticly rewired the venue and patched into power. The choir sat in the main seats and practiced. There was not much time left. No Sound. Check this, Check that. No Sound. Wait that patch is wrong, ok try again. We have Sound! Ok all mics are up, fix the feedback. We have to change all the levels to deal with the new speakers. Wow, these speakers sound nice. Almost there, get the choir up on stage. "Sing! Sing!" I feel like the Phantom in that Opera. Crank the sound lets make sure the people in the back can hear. Yea, those speakers get the job done. Thirty minutes before show time, we are a go. Seven hours of services to make it through. I just need to run the board and keep it sounding sweet. People started to thank me, I thanked them back but asked them to hold thanks till after services, my day had only started and there was a long way to go. In the end we had very few complaints that day, and a lot of thanks for the hard work that the whole crew put in to make the sound work. It was as it always is a labor of love to pull off these services. I'm just glad when things go wrong sometimes God puts things in place for you to do something about it. He never does all the work for you, just gives you the strength to get it done.

If you are looking for a Reform Temple on the west side and want to check out some great services with a Rabbi on Guitar. Come over and check us out.
Temple Akiba
5249 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90230
www.templeakiba.net

Keep an eye out for my post later this week about our Kabbalat Shabbat Service this Friday night with a Picnic Dinner under the Sukkah and then services in round with musicians and singers. It's an amazing experience.

A very special thanks goes out to Jonathan, the minster from hopeoncampus.org who let us borrow his sound gear.

Photos by Brad Herman.
-Your Friendly Neighborhood Photog