Rabbi Lauren Ben-Shoshan’s face lights up as she speaks of the coming high holidays for the local Jewish community. After all, for a religion in which nature plays an integral part, the raw beauty of the Lake Tahoe region makes for the ideal convergence of spirituality and connection. And for members of the North Tahoe Hebrew Congregation, a Reform synagogue in Tahoe Vista, the autumnal High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and fall harvest celebration, Sukkot, are best celebrated in the outdoors.
“We’re incredibly lucky to be a part of this tradition that is deeply rooted in nature,” Ben-Shoshan said. “Throughout generations, [the Jewish people] have been forced to move around. To now choose to move to a place because of the nature is such a gift. I know a lot of people out here — not just of Jewish faith, but of all faiths — are in the process of seeking and the process of intentionally connecting in nature.”
In a time when organized religion is losing steam throughout the country, more people are finding their own version of spirituality, often doing so in their personal connection with the outdoors. As a clergy person, however, Ben-Shoshan believes the two concepts of spirituality can coexist, and she embraces the opportunities for creativity within religious interpretation, especially in a religion such as Judaism, in which so many teachings are intertwined with the natural world.
“One of the things that we’ve found as we co-create the Jewish community up here — because that’s really important to me is this idea of co-creation and making sure that what we are doing is reflective of the spiritual needs of our community — is that those two things are really closely tied,” she said of exploring, engaging, and studying opportunities to connect nature and tradition.
CLOSELY TIED: In a world where only 0.2% of the population is of Jewish faith, the Jewish community in the Tahoe/Truckee area is rather small and close-knit. Families from the two Reform synagogues in the region often gather to celebrate High Holy Days, such as Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Here, as part of community building, children are drawing their home towns into the sand, complete with temple, roads, and trees.Ben-Shoshan finds that folks are experiencing an organic outgrowth not only within their hearts and from a spirituality standpoint, but also within the place and space they are in.
“Very few people up here are here accidentally. They’re here with intention,” she said. “They are seeking something, they are connecting to something, and that’s why they are here. It’s not easy to live in the mountains. It’s not a simple process to get through the winter here, even though the winter here offers so much joy and so much fun … It’s not simple. You have to choose it.”
That active choice, that desire to be connected, is what Ben-Shoshan has termed as the gem of creation.
“Look at maps of this place and it truly is a jewel. And around that jewel are several other smaller jewels … Donner Lake and all the other [lakes], the river systems, and all of this access,” she said. “As a rabbi, I happen to be particularly lucky in that Judaism is deeply tied into land and nature and creation in a way that, you know, when we’re in the cities we talk about, but out here we actually get to act on. And that’s really exciting.”
NATURAL CONNECTIONS: Celebrating Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, on the majestic shores of Lake Tahoe’s Sand Harbor.Many Jewish holidays are related to harvest and to natural cycles, Ben-Shoshan explained. There is even an entire practice related to the various stages of the moon and its location in the nighttime sky. The fortune of living here and having the opportunity to actually, physically observe the moon in a way that is not possible living in a city affected by light pollution is not lost on her.
For those in her congregation, Ben-Shoshan makes a point of merging the spirituality of the Jewish faith with the natural world by holding religious services and celebrations in the outdoors whenever appropriate. Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, is a two-day period of introspection, abstinence, penitence, and of course, prayer. The North Tahoe congregation, along with its partner congregation from South Lake Tahoe, began the observance of this High Holy Day on the evening of Oct. 2 with a celebration and service at Sand Harbor.
THE PERFECT SETTING for the marriage of traditional faith and the concept of spirituality being rooted outdoors. Melody Taylor, of Miss Melo Music, strummed her six-string for fellow congregants at the evening Rosh Hashana celebration on Oct. 2.“We’re incredibly lucky,” she said. “Not everybody can find a spot in between their two congregations and have it be a place of deep connection into what it means to celebrate creation, which is what we’re doing on Rosh Hashanah.”
On the second day of Rosh Hashana, congregants observe the holiday with a hike around Spooner Lake.
“In Judaism, we often picture the year as a circle, as a cycle,” she said, stressing how blessed the community is to be able to hike around this lake that is physically representative of that concept. “We have a tradition and a ritual as we hike around, where we notice and we wonder and we appreciate everything that we see and that is happening, whether it be conversations between us or to be able to walk through the aspen grove that’s out there and talk about how that represents community … Every single tree that you see is an individual, and yet their root system and their communication system is all interconnected. It’s so wonderful to be able to be in a space that those conversations between nature and community come up organically.”
GEM OF CREATION: Like many who have moved to the area, Rabbi Lauren Ben-Shoshan feels a deep spiritual connection with nature. She has termed that conscious choice to connect ”the gem of creation.”In Judaism, it is the responsibility of the present generation to add on to the past, to bring something new to the faith. Ben-Shoshan is excited to see what her own congregation, which has around 90 member families in Tahoe Vista, and 80 who are members at Temple Bat Yam in South Lake Tahoe, will add to the 5,000 years of legacy and tradition.
“I think that the thing that we’re doing up here right now that’s exciting from a Jewish spirituality standpoint, and a general spirituality standpoint, is creating these opportunities to connect with one another and to deeply connect with nature that’s just not in existence in most places,” she said. “As an organization, the Tahoe Jewish community is trying really hard to figure out what that next iteration of Judaism, that we’re calling Mountain Judaism, looks like. It is our community’s greatest hope that this is the contribution that we’re making; this rerouting, re-grounding in what it means to be … in God’s country, or what I call this gem of creation.”
