I've accepted an invitation to celebrate Chanukah this evening at Teshuvah Messianic Synagogue. The invitation has come from Rabbi Dr Yehoshua Scott. He and I have spoken on the phone and exchanged emails over the past few months, but haven't met in person till this evening. That's Rabbi Scott in the photo above, beside the banner that’s put up outside Brice Hall (in Queens Road) whenever the congregation is meeting here.
This is the second of three Chanukah celebrations to which I've been invited this week. I attended the communal indoor lighting in the Town Hall with the Leicester Hebrew Congregation last night and have an invitation to the lighting of the public Menorah in Victoria Park with the Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation on Friday. If I'm able to attend all three, then I reckon I'll be the only person in Leicester to have done so.
I'm greeted at the door by the Rabbi's wife, who seats me beside Vickie Simpson, with whom I chat for the few minutes before the programme starts. I'm pleased to discover that, among other things, Vickie is an artist. Her work can be seen online here.
Rabbi Scott leads us through several songs, in Hebrew and English, accompanied by a small band, comprising a singer, a keyboard player and a violinist. We also see a number of musical video presentations, each one portraying something different about the celebration of Chanukah:
- Rock of Ages The Hanukkah story in eight hit songs (a short medley of pop music parodies through the ages) by aish.com
- Candlelight by The Maccabeats (a spoof of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite", based on Mike Tompkin's a cappela version of that song) that has received over 6,000,000 hits on YouTube
- Chanukkah Rights by Six13
- Light in the Air by biblerapsnation
Rabbi Scott reads a learned yet accessible drasha telling the story of the historical event which is commemorated and celebrated annually at Chanukkah, setting it within the wider historical context of its time and place.
A young man named Marcus shares his testimony with us. He reads three poems of his own composition, based on his experiences, each illustrating a different stage of fatherhood (and each an analogy for his changing relationship with God). To tell the truth, normally I don't find it easy to relate to this sort of thing, but I find Marcus's contribution to the evening was genuinely affecting, touching and moving. I think it brave of him to bare his soul before us (and I make a point of telling him that afterwards).
The attendees this evening are quite a mixed bunch, which is reflected in the food and drink on offer: Indian, Indonesian, Thai, as well as more traditional Chanukh fare (e.g. latkes and jam doughnuts).
I meet people this evening who have travelled from as far afield as Birmingham, Cambridgeshire and Coventry. Teshuvah Messianic Synagogue is the only one of its kind in the Midlands. Presently, there are two other Messianic Jewish congregations in England: Adat Yeshuah, in Norwich, Norfolk and Zera Avraham in Coulsdon, Surrey. All three are affiliated to the Union of British Messianic Jewish Congregations.
I enjoyed my warm welcome this evening - I didn't get to leave until 2245! I hope to be able to meet Rabbi Scott and his wife again, get to know more members of the congregation, learn more about their beliefs and learn more from their experiences.
You may well have noticed, faithful reader, that just as there are variations in the way that Chanukah is celebrated, so there are variations in its spelling. In each of these three blog entries, I've spelled it as it appears on the invitation from the respective host community.
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