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A Letter from
Chatham Synagogue Board President,
Alice Swersey
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Dear Members and Friends:
Burt and I recently went off to the Adirondacks for a few days of canoeing and hiking. We went back to what has now become our favorite place, Upper Saranac Lake. Even though we live in the country, and in a very beautiful place, it is where we work and so we need an occasional get-a-way.
I am both in awe of the magnitude of the high peaks and also struck by the intimacy of the landscape, as one quietly notices a loon swimming just beneath the surface of the water, or one recognizes the first sheep laurel in bloom beside a mountain swamp. I have come to realize that here, in the vast wilderness, I can commune with something larger than myself. It is here in the great outdoors that I become spiritual.
I have had moments in synagogue, too, which moved me to see beyond what is just there. But I must admit that it is always a challenge and usually difficult for me to enter the sacred space during a typical Shabbat morning service.
For some reason I have not thought to combine the experience in nature with the learning of text, or the experience of being Jewish, for that matter. These have been very separate aspects of my being.
So it may have been somewhat of a coincidence - b'shert - that while leafing through the North Country Dining Guide I noticed a "by reservations only" dinner at the Robert Louis Stevenson Tea Room, "Serving Freshly Prepared Self-certified Kosher Outstanding World Cuisine."
That page certainly caught my attention since one does not go to this region for the restaurant food which is, at best, mediocre. I entered the phone number into my iPhone but, since I rarely had a signal, I thought it unlikely that I would make a connection. I tried several times and all of the calls failed. But as we were getting into our canoe on a remote pond in the St. Regis Canoe Area, I got a strong signal and reached the proprietress, Rita Leonard. Yes, they had a table for us at 7 P.M. that evening.
Hours later we were seated in an elegant dining room, appointed with many charming antiques (I might add that we were dressed in our camping finest). A fresh mushroom soup was presented in elegant china soup bowls. Our salmon roasted with lemon caper sauce and accompanied by perfectly prepared vegetables was served to us by the chef, Les Hershhorn. The New York State Macintosh apple strudel was the ultimate finale. We could not resist asking Les how he came here to do this. His story is a long one, but suffice to say that he and his wife, Rabbi Rita Leonard, are quite involved with the Robert Louis Stevenson Center in Saranac Lake. How there came to be a kosher restaurant called the Robert Louis Stevenson Tea Room in Saranac Lake is also another story.
During the summer, Rabbi Rita conducts Shabbat services, playing her guitar and singing Yiddish songs, every Friday evening at the 105 year old Beth Jacob Synagogue in near-by Tupper Lake. The synagogue is a New York State and National Historic Site.
And so the evening progressed with shared stories of culinary and Jewish traditions. As we parted Rabbi Rita hugged me and offered a bei gesundt (Be well)
Having experienced this confluence of the natural and Jewish worlds, I now feel primed for our visit with my friend, Rabbi Jamie Korngold, on Tuesday, July 20 at 6 pm at the synagogue.
Rabbi Korngold is a Reform Rabbi who established the Adventure Rabbi program in Boulder Colorado. Her mission is to let the wilderness awaken your Judaism. We will gather to hear and view her via a computer hook-up (Skype). As our connection will be sound and picture, We will have an opportunity to ask Rabbi Korngold questions.
If you have a chance, take a look at Jamie's book, "God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering Spirituality of the Great Outdoors with the Adventure Rabbi" (Doubleday 2008) You can find the book on Amazon for $9.56.
I look forward to sharing this evening with you.
Alice
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AUTHOR LECTURE: "A Conversation with Rabbi Jamie Korngold"
Tuesday, July 20th at 6:00 pm
Join us for a live, online conversation with Boulder, Colorado-based Rabbi Jamie Korngold, whose organization, "Adventure Rabbi," helps people reconnect to Judaism via nature.
Admission is free
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The Robert Louis Stevenson
Tea Room
Saranac, New York |
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