Tot Shabbat

Jordyn and I (and my dad) went to our first Tot Shabbat tonight. For those who aren't familiar, it's basically a Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath) service that's designed for and around young kids. It's a 30-minute very child-friendly service that includes some of the basic prayers, a puppet show, and a Torah parade (at this temple, anyway - I'm sure it varies at different places), and then dinner is served afterwards. Very cute!

I haven't belonged to a synagogue since I was part of my family's membership as a kid/teen. Ever since I've moved out of my parents' house after high school, I've just always found somewhere random to attend High Holiday services, and never belonged to a temple. But now, with Jordyn, I really wanted to join somewhere, mostly for the community, and because I want her to grow up with a Jewish identity of some sort. And, since my parents moved up here, they were in the market to find a temple to join, so we'd checked out a couple places recently. We attended this particular temple for the High Holidays last month, and really liked it, so we all decided to join.

The temple has a Tot Shabbat once a month, and we went for the first time tonight. I know Jordyn isn't exactly old enough to actually get anything out of it, but it was nice to be there for the community aspect, to meet people. It was very well-done, and really nice, especially because I just kept thinking about how long - how very many years - I've been waiting to have a little one to bring to a Tot Shabbat service... and now there I was, finally. It was kind of an amazing feeling.