At Ocean Beach on Saturday night, San Franciscans ushered in the Jewish New Year with all the usual trimmings: odes to wild women, kosher marshmallows and Visa bills burned to a crisp.
Dubbed the “Feasting Around the Bonfire,” the event combined ancient prayers with a hint of paganism, liberal helpings of roasted vegetables and a six pack of He’Brew beer to wash it all down. It was sponsored by Keneset HaLev-Community of the Heart, an independent San Francisco congregation.
Chilling winds off the Pacific Ocean proved no match for the cavernous firepit dug by the cadre of volunteers who had the temerity to show up on time for the event. The other volunteers fetched firewood or passed out prayer sheets and name tags.
Joel Siegel then kicked off the event by strumming a few strands of Simon and Garfunkel.
In between songs, Jeff Haas, who performed the role of the maggid, or storyteller, gave the crowd a few kernels of wisdom to chew on.
“For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry,” he said. “And for beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.”
Jonathan Leff, who has been attending Keneset HaLev services for the past year and a half, echoed a theme voiced by many at the evening’s festivities. Over a mouthful of s’mores, Leff talked about the sense of community and renewal that made the ceremonies special.
“During the High Holy Days, I always tend to be contemplative,” Leff said. “It’s really incredible what a vast body of knowledge the Jewish religion is and how little I actually know about it. At Keneset HaLev, there’s a real sense of empowerment and of sharing that knowledge. I always leave services feeling moved.”
His face framed by the glow of the campfire, storyteller Haas read another selection, using the sing-song cadences of a cantor. “Birth is the beginning, and death a destination, and life is a journey — a sacred pilgrimage to life everlasting.”
Many who were gathered around the fire took the opportunity to burn objects that they viewed as a hindrance as they entered the new year.
David Weinstein threw into the flames a mound of junk mail, which he called “the banal dross of my existence.”
Julia Watt-Rosenfeld tossed symbolic clumps of earth into the fire to help conquer her timidity.
Other debris included charred credit-card bills, financial statements and newspaper clippings.
Some people chose to come to the bonfire to heal themselves from a painful relationship in the comfort of friendly strangers. Deborah Kanner burned e-mails from an old boyfriend. Reluctantly.
“I didn’t really want to burn the e-mails, but my friend asked me what I had to gain by not letting go of them. I didn’t really have an answer. So I watched them burn. I feel like I’m going into the new year clean.
“It feels good,” Kanner said, “but check back with me next week.”
Hope Smith dismissed several relationships in one fell swoop. The service was an opportunity to embrace a society where “love underlies every interaction between people,” said Smith, who led people around the campfire in a tribute to the spirit of wild women and loving men.
“I let go of my old self-definitions,” she said. “Many of them came from my need to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps as a hyper-successful business person. I found out that that definition wasn’t working for me. This past year, I faced up to those issues and was finally able to let things go.”
As the evening wore down, and a few last chords of Pete Seeger floated in the crisp ocean winds, Adam Miller and Eric Farber conducted an impromptu debate on philosophy and religion.
“I like these services because it’s a way of celebrating the High Holy Days and the equinox,” Miller said. “It’s very pagan actually. The singing, the dancing. Being in the outdoors. I’ve always thought that Judaism had elements of paganism in it.”
Farber retorted: “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. After a few drinks, he thinks he’s a religious scholar.”
Miller laughed and took another sip of beer. “That’s true,” he replied. But he did have a warm campfire, a fistful of potato chips and the beer of the chosen people. And at Ocean Beach last Saturday night, that was just all right.