Happy New Year

For Jewish people around the world, today marks the beginning of the new year.

Year 5771.

Wow, do I feel old.

Growing up, this holiday was a big deal in my house.

We used to spend all day in synagogue praying.

Praying that the next year would be better than the last.

Praying that your family would be safe and healthy.

Praying that you could stay awake during the Rabbi’s sermon.

My dad was really good at the first two.

He loved going to synagogue or as we always referred to it in the Jewish slang, Shul.

We would go to Shul almost every Saturday during the year, but we would never miss the “High Holidays”.

As I’ve stated before, I’m a big believer in religion, any religion.

If it works for you.

I still believe in God and I still believe in faith and I still believe in tradition and I still believe in believing.

But as for spending all day sitting in a synagogue, that’s just not for me.

And it hasn’t been for a while.

I haven’t gone to a Shul in several years and I won’t be going for these holidays.

It’s not a protest or political statement, I’m just not going.

And it sounds like I’m not the only one.

I spoke to several of my Jewish friends yesterday and we exchanged Happy New Year greetings as we always do.

I asked if they would be going to Shul for the services and the group was split.

Some are.   Some are not.

Not exactly a Gallup Poll, but it was still interesting to me.

I was raised to be much more religious than the core of my friends.

In fact, I was raised a hardcore part-time orthodox jew.

I went to a Jewish school, five days a week, learning English, Math and Science for half of the day.

Jewish studies for the other half.

We kept a strictly kosher home, with strictly kosher rules.

All kosher foods.

Different plates for meat meals and milk meals.

And there was no getting around it.

Unless we were out of the house.

Then we did what worked.

In the Jewish religion you can’t eat shellfish.

But my dad always raved about the crab cakes in Maryland.

On the Sabbath, you cannot drive a car.

But we always drove to Shul.

On the Sabbath, you cannot turn on lights or electronics.

But we always watched a game on TV.

In fact, sports was a religion in our house.

I can remember May 24, 1980 like it was yesterday.

That was the day of my Bar Mitzvah, the day I became a man.

I spent many months preparing for that day.

Learning the words, writing the speech, picking out the food.

But sitting here thirty years later, the first thing that comes to mind from that day was coming home from the services and turning on the TV.

At that EXACT moment I saw Bob Nystrom of the New York Islanders skating around the ice after scoring the game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup Finals to defeat my Philadelphia Flyers.

It broke my heart as a Flyers fan.

But little did I know at the time that Nystrom was Jewish, not that it would’ve made me feel better.

I always loved hearing my dad's story about the time he mixed religion and sports.

He was working for the original Los Angeles Angels at the time, in the early 60’s.

The team was in Chicago on a road-trip and going through a terrible losing streak.

So bad, that he found a synagogue in Chicago where he could go to a Saturday service and pray.

At one point, as a visitor, he was called up to the stage to recite a certain prayer.

As part of that prayer, the Rabbi asked if there are any specific people in my dad’s life that he would like the Rabbi to mention.

When this is done, people will usually bring up their mother or father or children or anybody that they feel needs an extra shot.

That’s where Starbucks got the idea.

Well my dad mentioned his close family members, like most people do.

And then asked the Rabbi to say an extra prayer for the Angels.

The Los Angeles Angels.

The Orthodox Rabbi stopped cold and seemed shocked.

He informed my father that he could not do that.

“Why,” my father asked.

“Because I’m a White Sox fan."

Happy New Year, no matter what team you are on.