A Hectic but Joyful Holiday

Phillyburbs.com

When Baily Kahan was growing up in Brooklyn, one of nine children of a very religious Jewish family, the Jewish New Year was an intense and deeply spiritual time.

Kahan remembers it well.

“For days before the holiday, the whole community was buzzing. The streets were crowded with thousands of visitors from around the world,” she said.
They had come to spend the holidays with the community’s spiritual leader, known as the Rebbe.

Today, Kahan spends her own Jewish High Holy Days not in Brooklyn, but in Medford. She is the wife of local Chabad Rabbi Yitzchok Kahan, and her life before and during the holidays, which officially begin with Rosh Hashana at sundown Wednesday, is definitely hectic.

The Chabad movement is a growing one around the country and the world, and is dedicated to bringing even uninvolved Jews back to their roots by embracing and welcoming them into a meaningful community.

“We are not out to ‘convert’ Jews to orthodoxy or to force any ideas on people,” said Yitzchok Kahan, who arrived in the area six years ago. “Our real goal is to involve as many Jews of all backgrounds as we can in coming to know and understand their own religion more deeply.”

The Chabad movement is largely supported by voluntary contributions.
The Kahans cling to traditional Orthodox lifestyles in their family, and Kahan noted that his wife is his equal partner, and the backbone and lifeblood of the family. The couple are parents of five sons who range in age from 2 months to 8 years.

Baily Kahan also is her husband’s spiritual partner and shares his goals.
“We want to give everyone the opportunity to connect to their heritage, and not just at this time of year,” she said, taking some time out from her monumental holiday preparations.

While her husband conducts Rosh Hashana services Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday, which are free and open to everyone, Kahan provides much of the holiday food that is served after those services. She is admittedly “highly organized” and begins the preparations and planning days before the holidays begin.

“I make as much of the traditional holiday foods as I can,” she said. “I actually look forward to it, and the older boys love to help.”

She deftly makes the traditional challah, the braided bread that is served on Shabbat (Sabbath) and the High Holy Days, and prepares the gefilte fish and kugels that also are traditional holiday fare.

“I do a written timeline and stick to it. And luckily, we have an extra freezer in the garage,” Kahan said.

All of this is juggled with the demands of five active sons and balanced with their usual daily routines, scrapes and even emergencies.

But just as in Kahan’s own childhood, the excitement and joy are the predominant feelings in her household at holiday time.

“This is a wonderful period when we pray and hope for a good year,” she said. “There are so many needs, so many questions. The days are somber but exciting.”

As Kahan explained, “We may feel uncertain, but we still trust that it (the new year) will be good.”

On Wednesday night, the rabbi and his family will share their own Rosh Hashana (“head of the year”) with others who seek meaning in this season.
“It’s a privilege,” he said. “We welcome one and all.”

After the public service and reception, his wife manages to set up a family celebration at their home to give their sons a chance to share and celebrate the holidays in a more private way.

“Sometimes,” she said, “the boys do need our undivided attention. And we love to give it to them.”