They came up several candles short onstage at Oakland’s Calvin Simmons Theatre Saturday night.
The opening ceremony at “Havdalah Beneath the Stars” was supposed to feature a multiple-candle salute to the Sabbath — a scaled-up version of the traditional ceremony ending Shabbat
But an inopportune rainshower forced the ceremony indoors, where the building code stipulated that so many candles would violate fire safety regulations.
The compromise involved one lovely, triple-wicked candle, extinguished simply by dipping it into a goblet of wine, as hundreds looked on.
The ceremony kicked off an evening-long festival, the bulk of which was held across the street at the Oakland Museum, which drew a crowd of more than 1,500.
The havdallah, put on by the Center for Jewish Living and Learning of the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay, attracted approximately double the attendance of last year’s festival. The museum proved a big draw, providing adequate space and scenic backdrops for each activity, including some new ones this year.
Creativity was the theme of the evening.
For example, Nancy Katz, the event’s arts program coordinator, made sure that despite the downpour, three stars were sighted in order to officially end the Sabbath. Her three large, cut-out representations of heavenly bodies were carried onstage atop three chuppah poles. And while proving less incandescent than their cloud-covered counterparts, the stars provided an appropriate preview of what was to come.
Live performances by music and theater groups took place amid the museum’s paintings and sculptures. And since it was “Bring Your Own Art” night, dozens of pieces by synagogue and day-school students, submitted especially for the event, augmented the museum works.
“This was an opportunity for a lot of parents to say, `My kid’s art was hung in the Oakland Museum,'” quipped event organizer Jamie Hyams.
A major attraction for those in attendance was the zimriyah, or children’s song festival, featuring choruses and choirs from eight East Bay Hebrew schools. It proved so popular that the James Moore Theater — significantly smaller than its havdallah-hosting counterpart across the street — was packed to capacity with children, parents and those with an affinity for tuneful kids doing the best they could to keep up with each other. The theater was so crowded that the songfest was closed-circuit broadcast to the lecture hall across the foyer, for those who couldn’t find a seat or an aisle or a lap inside.
Also well-attended was the “Hagigah! PerformingArts Festival,” which included music and drama amid the paintings and sculptures of the museum’s third floor, an arts-and-crafts center in which people produced an array of Purim masks, Israeli folk dancing, several Jewish-themed movies and the show-closing teen disco, which was jammed with gyrating Jewish youth. “They had to turn out the lights to get them to leave at midnight,” said Hyams. “Wait. I guess they had to turn the lights on…”
“I loved the music” from the “Hagigah!,” said David Cooper, event co-chair and co-owner of Afikomen, one of the sponsors. “And we didn’t have to sit down to watch it. We moved all over the third-floor gallery and looked at the artwork while the musicians played. It was fantastic.”
Before the night ended, nearly 300 havdallah candles were dispersed, one per household, to the crowd. The purpose was to inspire families to take the custom home with them, explained Hyams. “We always light candles to signify the start of Shabbat in my house,” she said . “But we also want to show that it has an end. That makes the time a little more special.”
The federation’s Valerie Jonas, who also helped organize the event, pronounced it a resounding success. “It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to come together spiritually and celebrate like this. It was just excellent.”