A large aspect of the High Holidays is bringing everyone together, according to Aryeh Shudofsky, and that’s exactly what Kemp Mill Synagogue aims to do.
The High Holidays bring congregants, visiting family members and friends to the Silver Spring Orthodox shul in droves.
“It’s just bringing everybody into this building: 1,000 [to] 1,300 people at a time, which I think is a powerful thing,” Shudofsky, Kemp Mill Synagogue’s executive director, said.
This busy but meaningful time of year brings mixed feelings.
“It’s stressful because there’s a lot happening here on a regular basis, and then you add on holidays and people and emotions and other things,” Shudofsky said. “So it’s always challenging, but it’s a great time of year.”
Kemp Mill Synagogue is already in the full swing of things ahead of the High Holidays. The shul recently hosted Jewish music star Shulem Lemmer as a hazzan-in-residence for a pre-Rosh Hashanah musical Shabbat.
“I’ve heard from other places [that have hosted Lemmer] that people continue talking about him for years,” Shudofsky said of the world-renowned singer.
The first weekend in September was rich with a beautiful Friday night and Shabbat morning davening, a community lunch and youth programming: “It was a huge weekend.”
The community also welcomed a new staff member, Adina Blaustein, Kemp Mill Synagogue’s Yoetzet Halacha and community scholar. A Yoetzet Halacha is a female advisor in Taharat Hamishpacha — family purity — a part of Jewish law that encompasses marriage, sexuality and women’s health.
Having served in the same role in Cleveland before moving to the Kemp Mill area, Blaustein began at Kemp Mill Synagogue on Sept. 1, succeeding the former Yoetzet Halacha of 12 years.
The new community scholar is “very well known” as an educator, lecturer and speaker, Shudofsky added, describing the decision to hire her full-time as the “perfect fit.”
“She’s done a lot of guest speaking, scholars-in-residence lecturing,” Shudofsky said of Blaustein. “She was an actual classroom teacher for years in Cleveland, and she’s a Yoetzet Halacha, so she’s an expert in her field of Jewish law. So, as a speaker, she was exciting.”
He added that Blaustein’s father-in-law attends Kemp Mill Synagogue, so Blaustein was already “somewhat known” in the community. Shudofsky had previously brought her in as a guest speaker on three occasions.
Blaustein was scheduled to give two pre-Selichot talks at the shul as her launch into the community. The first talk focuses on commanded memory and Rosh Hashanah, a day of remembrance, and the second session is a discussion about “When the Dead Pray for the Living,” which covers the “power of ancestral memory in Selichot.”
“We talk about Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and those who came before us during Selichot, as we do during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and we invoke their memories to help [not only] inspire us but also put us in favor with Hashem,” Shudofsky said. “[Blaustein] is going to be talking about that idea of past generations being infused in our own davening and hopes for the future.”
Focusing on Selichot is a way to prepare the community for the upcoming High Holidays.
“Elul in general — this entire month — is the idea of awakening and refocusing,” Shudofsky said. “That’s why we blow shofar in the morning; it gets you refocused. But as opposed to jumping in cold on the first night of Rosh Hashanah, [Selichot] gives you the opportunity [not only] to start focusing your mind but also to lay the groundwork. The word ‘Selichot’ is ‘an apology,’ so asking for forgiveness. It starts to lay the groundwork for everything we say over Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, all the different tefillot. We start the Saturday night the week before, because of the way the calendar falls this year … and then you’re supposed to say Selichot every single day leading up to Rosh Hashanah and then again every day between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.”
Shudofsky looks forward to bringing the Kemp Mill Synagogue community together over the coming weeks.
“We bring 1,200 [to] 1,300 people plus kids into the building, and it’s a great opportunity for people to connect,” he said. “Rabbi [Brahm] Weinberg makes the rounds, so he’s in a different room at different times over the High Holidays, speaking to different crowds and, in that sense, gets to touch everybody who’s here at some point.”
For now, Shudofsky is proud of the programming he’s helped organize and elevate, whether educational or social, or geared toward kids, teens or adults.
“It’s not just about walking into the building, going to davening and then leaving,” Shudofsky said. “[Our programming] really creates more of a home atmosphere and a broader atmosphere for people to see the shul as a place that’s more central to their lives.”
