At a senior living residence across from Lake Merritt in Oakland, a dozen people gather to usher in Shabbat with candles and song, wine and challah.
And a child shall lead them.
Well, not a child for much longer. Seth Bobrowsky, a seventh-grader at Contra Costa Jewish Day School, turns 13 on Saturday, March 14 — the day of his bar mitzvah at Oakland’s Temple Sinai. As part of this major lifecycle event, he was required to do a mitzvah project. Seth elected to lead kabbalat Shabbat services at The Lake Merritt.
That was more than a year ago, and today Seth is still going strong with his one-Friday-night-per-month commitment.
“I like Judaism,” he says, “and I love to sing and perform. So I thought I’d lead Shabbat services here.”
In Seth’s case the proverbial apple has not fallen far from the tree. His mother, Ilene Keys, is cantor at Temple Sinai. She was approached by Lake Merritt owners and Temple Sinai members Cheryl and Randall Berger, who expressed interest in having someone lead Friday night services.
Keys then pitched the idea to her son, figuring it was right up his alley.
“He’s been coming to Temple Sinai since he was a baby,” Keys notes. “He sings with me twice a month on the bimah and he’s in junior choir. He’s always been comfortable on the bimah.”
That shows the moment he walks into The Lake Merritt’s library, which doubles as a house of prayer for the Shabbat service.
The Lake Merritt is a converted Art Deco hotel built in 1928 across from the iconic Oakland lake. It’s an “independent-lifestyle community” offering occupants a taste of luxury retirement living. The place offers all kinds of activities, from yoga to trivia nights. But for the Jews who live there, Seth fills an important spiritual need.
All smiles, all confidence, Seth greets everyone gathered around a table topped with candles, wine glasses and a pair of challahs from nearby Grand Bakery.
He hands out song sheets, then leads his merry minyan in hearty renditions of “Shalom Aleichem” and “Hine Ma Tov.” In between songs, his “congregants” ask questions.
“What’s your [bar mitzvah] Torah portion?” someone asks. Seth explains he has a double parshah, Vayakhel-Pekudei. Just the luck of the draw, though he doesn’t seem at all intimidated by the task.
“Why are there two challahs?” wonders another. Seth defers to his mother sitting at the end of the table. She says the challahs represent the two portions of manna God provided the Israelites during their desert wanderings. “It was like tofu,” Keys says, paraphrasing the description in the Talmud.
Seth then takes charge and leads the blessings over the candles, wine and challah (though he only sips grape juice). He sings in a strong, high voice not yet coarsened by puberty.
Then, “Let’s sing a new song,” Seth says, pointing out on the song sheet a version of “Lecha Dodi” unfamiliar to many in the room. He launches into song.
“He’s wonderful,” gushed Lake Merritt resident Jay Bloom, who moved to Oakland from Cape Cod a few years ago. “A very sweet young man, very self-possessed with a nice voice.”
Judging by the smiles and thank-yous Seth gets from those gathered, Bloom’s sentiments are widely shared at the post-service shmoozefest. And no doubt some of Seth’s Lake Merritt friends will attend his bar mitzvah, since he handed out invitations to everyone assembled.
“It makes me feel good,” Seth says before dashing off to Temple Sinai with his mother for the synagogue’s kabbalat Shabbat service. “I made good friends, and spiritually it fulfills me.”
Then, with that winning smile, he adds, “Maybe I’ll be here when I’m 80.”