Happy New Year

So it's Rosh Hashanah and we decide to attend a celebration. We know about the Chabad House and decide to check it out. We were amazed at what we found. The 2 hour service we expected was only about 45 minutes and then the feast. We had dinner in a room with about 1,000 young Israeli kids and a few geezers like ourselves. There was another room below us with another 1,000 people. The couple we sat with were on their honeymoon and were really sweet. They told us that some of the other people were kids that had just finished their military service and the rest were just vacationing. Most of the other people at our table were the Rabbi's family, 6 kids and his wife. The kids were really sweet and mom had her hands full taking care of the youngest girl who was between 1 - 2 years old and wanted to wander and climb all over the place. The atmosphere was really exciting and joyful. It was all such a total surprise, serendipity. There is another organization that has services in a more upscale high rise kind of neighborhood that we might consider for Yom Kippur just to check them out.

We saw "World Trade Center" yesterday and do recommend it. On the same day we read that the American casualties in Afghanistan & Iraq reached the level of 9/11. It's sad because it doesn't seem like we have accomplished much in these 2 countries and most reports I see have things getting worse instead of better, so the loss of life, American and local is all the more tragic.
The only problem I am having is being able to include pictures here, I think I've tried all the things suggested in the help screens.

From Eleanor:

Last year, I attended Rosh Hashana services at the Chabad synagogue in San Diego. Claire, my oldest granddaughter, came with me. The rabbi, his family and people attending the services were very friendly and welcoming. It was an orthodox service--men on one side--women on the other and two hours of Hebrew prayers read from the prayer book. Claire enjoyed it since a book, offering detailed commentary in English, accompanied the prayers . The rabbi also gave a wonderful sermon. This was my context when we approached the Chabad House in Thailand on Friday evening.

I had emailed the Thailand office and the rabbi called to invite us to the service. He said that we had two choices--we could attend services at Khao San Road with "a thousand backpackers" or at the downtown Sukumvit location where it would be less crowded. Jules got the impression that the service would be more sedate there. We decided to go for the 1000 backpacker location. The location was familiar to us since we had eaten at the Chabad House restaurant a couple of times. We had checked out upstairs when we were there and had noted an internet cafe, a few small offices, a general waiting area, and a medium sized room which looked like the place where services were conducted. Upon arrival at the restaurant (closed for the evening), we were directed upstairs to the office where we purchased tickets for the evening meal (200 baht each--$5.00). I thought: okay--how nice that, after the regular two hour service, we would break bread together. We were early and we sat in the waiting area with about a dozen young people all speaking Hebrew. After a while, we were ushered into a very large dining area. I thought: even better, the meal will be before the service so we won't be hungry. We were seated long enough to make friends with a couple from Bathsheba in the Negev desert who were on their honeymoon. Then we were told that we needed to move to the bigger dining room upstairs. We got up and moved to an area with about a hundred long tables. Plates of honey were on the tables and each place setting contained a card in Hebrew and a dish containing a quarter of a pomergranite, some beets, a small squash square, several kidney beans, a slice of apple, and a slice of challah. Several bottles of water, coca cola, and sprite were also on the table. People kept streaming in--they were mostly in their twenties--I commented to Jules that they looked like their counterparts anywhere in the world--all dressed fashionably and talking animatedly. Not anyone's vision of backpackers! The rabbi and his family arrived and he invited anyone who wanted to light a candle to go downstairs and do so. There would also be a hand washing ceremony there. After a short time, during which more and more people arrived, the meal began with the traditional blessings. By now the hall was jammed. We were told that the smaller hall downstairs had been opened to accomodate the overflow. It began to dawn on me that there was no place large enough to seat all these people for a traditional service. Okay--we'll probably have the service right here, I thought. Fortunately, our honeymoon couple served as our intermittent interpreters since no English, only Hebrew, was spoken for the rest of the evening. We were instructed to dip our apple slice in the honey. Joyous singing and clapping accompanied the eating of each ingredient on our plate. I especially liked the eating of the kidney beans--everyone was instructed to raise their forks --a thousand kidney beans were elevated--more singing--we were told that eating the bean signified "chasing our enemies away". After we consumed each ingredient on the plate, bowls of food were put on the table--corn, baba ganoush, a tomato sauce dish, shredded carrots with fresh pineapple, rice with cashews and raisins, mashed potatoes, and meatballs in tomato sauce. Dessert was a bowl of vanilla ice cream (non-dairy we presumed--Jules said it was very good). Where were these hundreds of bowls of food prepared?? In the kitchen which prepared the meals for the restaurant consisting of about ten tables?? The rest of the evening passed quickly in a blur of singing and hand clapping--at one point, the rabbi stood on a chair and invited everyone to climb on their chairs to sing and clap some more. He addressed the crowd in Hebrew, giving a short sermon--then there was more singing--everyone knew these songs--everyone except us (we recognized two) and it was over. We looked at each other--wow!--this was our kind of religious service--a joyous feast with a thousand fellow travelers. Another amazing adventure.