Area rabbis talk summer and vacation

Summertime,

And the livin’ is easy;

Fish are jumpin,’

And the cotton is high …

–  The first stanza from

‘Summertime’ from ‘Porgy and Bess,’ written by

George Gershwin

The living is supposed to be easy during the summer, but for the area rabbis The Jewish Voice talked to about their vacation plans, “livin’ easy” will compete with work.

Rabbi Marc Mandel of Newport’s historic Touro Synagogue said his schedule doesn’t give him the luxury of an extended break.

“The summer months are very busy at Touro Synagogue, so I don’t really take a summer vacation,” Mandel, 56, said. “I do hope to get away for a few days in August (with his wife Jacqueline) for a family wedding in New York, and also for a day or two, to visit my son (Carmi) at camp in the Poconos,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t relax.

“Maybe I will find an afternoon or two to go down to Providence to unwind and enjoy the scenery there, and the kosher restaurants… ” he said.

Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser, 55, the spiritual leader of Temple Sinai in Cranston, also will mix business and pleasure.

“I will be spending most of the summer in Rhode Island. I will be making plans for next year’s religious school program at Temple Sinai, which will be going through some significant changes,” he said.

“The religious school is shifting to a model of group learning in which students in the whole school will do a number of learning projects together. I’ll be working with teachers and lay leaders over the summer to make final plans for the program.”

Goldwasser, though, will still set aside some free time.

“Both of my children (Talia, 19, and Eliana, 13) will be at summer camp in Vermont, my older daughter as a counselor and my younger daughter as a camper, so it will be a time for my wife (Jonquil Wolfson)  and me to enjoy some relaxing time for just the two of us. We plan on a family vacation in August during the week following summer camp.”

Goldwasser stressed the importance of taking it easy.

“The English word ‘vacation’ comes from the Latin ‘vacatio,’ which means ‘respite from work.’ The Hebrew word is ‘chufshah,’ which comes from a root meaning ‘freedom.’ In keeping with those definitions, I do not do any work over my vacation.”

He advises readers to do the same.

“Our culture is particularly bad at resting. We tend to determine so much of our personal value and our identity based on the work that we do that we are frightened or embarrassed not to be working. This is a dangerous situation,” he said.

“Rest from work is not something that has to be earned by laboring hard the rest of the year. Rather, rest is an innate human need. We cannot be our best selves if we don’t allow ourselves to rest. We cannot do any good work at all if we don’t renew ourselves with rest.”

Rabbi Ethan Adler, of Congregation Beth David of Narragansett, is located in a prime leisure spot, which makes for a hectic summer. His congregation holds three Friday evening services on Narragansett Beach in addition to regular Sabbath morning services in July and August, compared to only monthly Saturday services the rest of the year.

“Since Narragansett is a vacation destination, we often are joined by folks who visit the area during the summer months,” Adler, 68, said. But even with his full schedule, and with preparing for the High Holy Days, he still will catch up on reading and “spend as much time as my schedule allows to relax on the beach.“

Adler, who is married to Lori, also unwinds by “gardening, going on mini-trips and going for long walks, and watching the Red Sox – which at times admittedly is not that good for the spirit,” he said.

Rabbi Anne Heath of Congregation Agudath Achim in Taunton, Massachusetts, urged people to relax year-round. “Don’t wait until the summer to take a break. Sabbath comes once a week,” she said.

Heath, who said she’ll be busy organizing the synagogue and religious school calendars and preparing for the High Holy Days, nonetheless will visit relatives in Georgia, Michigan and Kansas.

Rabbi Aaron Philmus of Temple Torat Yisrael in East Greenwich  will also be traveling. He’s going “to Romania to do family history research and order headstones for family members buried there.”

Philmus, 40, his wife Valerie and two children are also planning two getaways. “Every summer, our family goes to Long Beach Island on the Jersey shore, and we also like to spend a few days in the Berkshires,” he said.

Not that he’ll completely abandon work. “When I am on vacation, I try to unplug, but usually I spend the down time reading books for my High Holiday sermons. The summer is an excellent time to commune with God in nature,” he said.

His advice is to follow the example of the Sabbath and “fix in time for rest and reflection.

“Some people like gardening, others like to go for a walk. Whatever gets your body moving and your senses tuned in to the spirit that moves in all things” is fine, he said.

LARRY KESSLER is a freelance writer who can be reached at lkessler1@comcast.net.