The Temple Wave

Posted by: on Sep 16, 2015 | No Comments
The one and only (for now) IraSez t-shirt.

The one and only (for now) IraSez t-shirt.

The Temple Wave

In the fall of 1980, I’m sitting in the first row of the 2nd level of seats in Hendricks Chapel at SU, along with the roomies. It’s Kol Nidre, the evening service that starts Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement for those of us of the Jewish persuasion. We are checking out the coeds and waving to the crowd like royalty, but than again, so is every else. It’s the Temple wave (although Hendricks Chapel is not really a Temple…but that’s besides the point…and I’m sure you understand what I mean…anyway).

These daze, you’d think the Temple wave is something all the little girls and boys do with their friends while sitting with their parents at services, especially on the High Holy Days. Services are long, services are boring, and they have to sit there. Why do they have to sit there? That’s easy – because everyone else’s parents made them sit there all those years ago. If we had to suffer in our youth, so should our kids. So they smile and wave to their friends, until boredom sits in, they try their best to sit through the service, until they are eventually freed to go outside during the Rabbi’s sermon. Kids don’t really want to sit through that…do they? I mean it seems to me that half the congregants don’t want to have to do that so why make your kids suffer. Even my parents never made me sit through the sermon.

But I’ve noticed the Temple wave is not really just for kids. It’s for their parents and their grandparents. At my Temple, I’m once again seated in the front row of the second level. Not so much to wave to my friends, but to watch what others are doing. Seated in the seats around and below me are members of my congregation, smiling to their friends and family, waving to their friends and family, blowing kisses to their friends and family. I’m pretty sure this is not just a Jewish phenomenon. I’ve been told that services held by other religions are pretty much the same – the smiles, the waves, the blowing kisses. I guess being in a house of worship just brings that out in people. It’s unfortunate that we all just can’t go through life just like that – waving, smiling and blowing kisses.