{"id":9978,"date":"2018-09-19T19:33:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T19:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=9978"},"modified":"2018-09-19T19:33:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T19:33:30","slug":"rabbi-brings-her-high-energy-to-the-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/19\/rabbi-brings-her-high-energy-to-the-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi Brings Her High Energy To The Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dana DuGan<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Rabbi Robbi Sherwin will bring her \u201ccoffices\u201d to Black Owl Coffee in Hailey, Sunday, Sept. 22. Photo by Dana DuGan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rabbi Robbi Sherwin calls herself a \u201csmitten mountain rabbi.\u201d And after 11 years as spiritual leader to Congregation B\u2019Nai Butte, in Crested Butte, Colo., she comes by that self-imposed sobriquet honestly.<\/p>\n

The Wood River Jewish Community, based in Ketchum, hired Sherwin in February to take over as its spiritual leader.<\/p>\n

Sherwin said it was hard to leave the high-mountain community in Crested Butte, but that she needed a \u201cplace where I could grow as a spiritual leader. I only left because the opportunity here was so phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are approximately 1,000 Jews in the Wood River Valley, many of whom aren\u2019t affiliated with WRJC. Within the WRJC, there are about 300 to 400 members, depending on the season.<\/p>\n

Sherwin is now the fifth rabbi for WRJC. She is contracted to being in the Valley at least 100 days of the year over the course of long weekends, a month at a time, in summer, fall and winter. The remainder of the time she lives in Austin, Texas, her home for about 40 years\u2014on and off\u2014with her husband Mark Jordan, an attorney and the conservation manager for the City of Austin. There, she is a member of the clergy team of Congregation Kol Halev. The couple have three grown children.<\/p>\n

Sherwin was an Air Force brat and grew up all over the country. Her father, an Air Force navigator who fought in Vietnam, still trains astronauts.<\/p>\n

Sherwin and her siblings were often the only Jews in their schools, where they often encountered ignorance and bigotry. As soon as they were old enough, her parents sent them to Jewish summer camp, an experience that informed Sherwin\u2019s life, her career path and her hopes for the future in the Wood River Valley.
\n\u201cMy parents gave us the gift of going to the same Jewish summer camp in Northern California no matter where we lived,\u201d she said in an interview \u201cI truly found my voice and identity in Judaism at summer camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

As important as that time was for her, Sherwin is equally determined to help Wood River Valley kids connect with their own Jewish identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy style is open and folky,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a contemporary rabbi and I hope I can make a difference in the Jewish world. I have plans for the Hailey crowd. More families live there\u2014there\u2019s diversity in age and socioeconomic status between those and the seasonal people in the Valley. I want to try to bring the community together. I want to start a scholarship for kids to go to Jewish camps, and connect teens with the<\/p>\n

Boise community.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a particularly busy time for Sherwin and her congregation, which meets at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Ketchum. High Holy Days encompasses Rosh Hashanah\u2014Sept. 8-9\u2014and Yom Kippur, which began last night and continues today, Wednesday, Sept.19.<\/p>\n

Sherwin said High Holy Days require some \u201c100 hours of preparation work, with 40 pieces of music, some of it thousands of years old, and some music that I wrote, readings from the Torah, sermons, and leading the service.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are five services done in 24 hours, starting with the eve of Yom Kippur.<\/p>\n

\u201cRosh Hashanah is the head of the year,\u201d Sherwin said. It\u2019s the birthday of the year, correlating with the birth of Adam, the first human.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us,it is year 5779,\u201d Sherwin said. \u201cThe new year gives us the opportunity to make us better. We cast away, in Tashlich, the crumbs of our lives into a flowing body of water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those crumbs\u2014usually bread crumbs\u2014\u201crepresent our shortcomings,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Judaism, to \u2018sin\u2019 is to miss the mark, an archery term. The concept is called t\u2019ashuvah\u2014to return, or try again. It is about the action, not the person, in Judaism. At the head of the year, you go to people you may have hurt, mostly with words, and ask them for forgiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter we receive forgiveness, we ask God for forgiveness for those shortcomings, those missing of marks. This is called Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.<\/p>\n

On Yom Kippur, we fast, donate to charity, and give food as donation that\u2019s equal to what we might have consumed that day. As a community, we\u2019re responsible for each other and ask God for forgiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Yom Kippur, we are cleansed free of our shortcomings and we start fresh. All of Judaism is about being a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to connect with the community, Sherwin holds \u201ccoffices\u201d (coffee meets office) at various coffee shops in the Valley.<\/p>\n

She wants to put herself in a position \u201cwhere the people are; where you don\u2019t judge, you listen and learn from them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Sept. 22 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Sherwin will be open for advice at Black Owl Coffee at 208 North River Street in Hailey. Anyone is welcome to stop by for a chat, she said.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Robbi, as she likes to be called, first became an ordained cantor before she was ordained as a rabbi. She calls this status a \u201cdouble ordination.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is a member and the president of the Women\u2019s Cantor Network, which includes 300 women from around the world from all denominations in Judaism, except in the Orthodox world, where women are not yet recognized as spiritual leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a huge privilege to be the president of this amazing organization,\u201d she said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWe give scholarships to deserving cantorial students, commission original pieces of music, hold an amazing annual conference, help each other finding music, in dealing with female clergy issues, and are a general support group for women clergy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides a flourishing spiritual life, Sherwin is a professional singer with 100 commercially published songs and several CDs to her name as well as collaborations with her multiple-award-winning band Sababa, with whom she sings and plays mandolin and guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Tulsa to Tel Aviv, we sing in Hebrew and Arabic\u2014we share many things,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re known as the Jewish Crosby, Stills & Nash due to our tight harmonies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band even has a song on a best world music compilation CD.<\/p>\n

Sherwin is a dedicated college football fan, was once a professional baker, rides horses, and hikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love being in the mountains,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s partly the smell and that I feel closer to God when I\u2019m in the mountains. I used to ski but have had too many injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherwin said people must struggle and change in order to find personal growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my mantras is \u2018bloom where you\u2019re planted\u2019,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a place that\u2019s going to help me bloom. And we\u2019re going to grow together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yom Kippur Services<\/b><\/p>\n

Wednesday, Sept. 19 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  • 10 a.m. Morning Service<\/li>\n
  • 5:30 p.m. Afternoon Service Jonah\u2019s Journey<\/li>\n
  • 6:15 p.m. Yizkor (Memorial Service)<\/li>\n
  • 6:45 p.m. Neilah (Concluding Service)<\/li>\n
  • 7:30 p.m. Community Break the Fast<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    All services are held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church,\u00a0201 Sun Valley Road<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Dana DuGan Rabbi Robbi Sherwin calls herself a \u201csmitten mountain rabbi.\u201d And after 11 years as spiritual leader to Congregation B\u2019Nai Butte, in Crested Butte, Colo., she comes by that self-imposed sobriquet honestly. The Wood River Jewish Community, based in Ketchum, hired Sherwin in February to take over as its spiritual leader. Sherwin said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"category-religion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}