Many mornings my husband hits the snooze button – several times – leaving himself a narrow window of time before he has to hit the front door. Many of those mornings as his eyes pass over his beloved aquarium near the door he says, “Honey, could you feed my fish?” Of course I can. Now if you’ve been noticing that the High Holidays are approaching in much the way my husband sees his aquarium, they’re out there and you plan to get back to them…soon…let me suggest you take these five steps.
1. Decide whether you are in fact going to go to one or more services.
2. Decide whether you are going alone or with your partner. I am saying this to the Jews and the non-Jews. If you want to go, that’s fine. If he/she doesn’t, so be it. Just go on your own. You can take them along next year with a bit more planning.
3. PLEASE, I beg of the Jews, don’t make the High Holidays your non-Jewish partner’s first Jewish service. YES, I’ve had people call and/or email me saying, I should have taken your advice because now my partner thinks they hate services.
4. Decide how much time you have for services. Do you want to go to one service only, say the evening of Yom Kippur? Then make plans just for that.
5. Ask yourself if you need help figuring out where to go. Call or email me soon. We’ll talk about: What would suit you and whomever you want to take along. Maybe you need to decide the level of Hebrew or the length of the services or you want to go somewhere that you won’t feel awkward if you need to leave early. Let’s talk.
If you’re comfortable finding the service you want, great! Do it today and be done with it.