Why Rabbis Spend a Day at Disneyland Before Rosh Hashanah

By Rabbi Paul Kipnes and Rabbi Elana Rabishaw

With sermons still being polished, services being planned, and a seemingly endless list of High Holy Day details demanding attention, why would rabbis (Rabbi Paul Kipnes and Rabbi Elana Rabishaw), spend 15 precious preparation hours instead in Disneyland with Congregation Or Ami's (Calabasas, California) youth team, Rabbi Paul's wife Michelle November, a group of 7th and 8th graders, and older youth group leaders?

Because sometimes the most important rabbinic work happens while waiting in line for a ride.

Congregation Or Ami calls Disneyland Day a bonding trip. And it was.

We rode thrilling rides (Space Mountain), rickety ones (Matterhorn), and rides designed to soak us even without the rain (Tiana's Bayou Adventure). We ate way too much fried food. We laughed. A lot.

We took "Selfies with the Rabbis," creating photographic evidence that rabbis sometimes "just wanna have fun."

But the rides weren't really the point. The lines were.

Standing together for 45 minutes at a time, we talked. The conversations moved quickly and unexpectedly: from the pressures of school to the complexities of friendship, from family stories to the questions they carry quietly, from what excites them to what worries them. We rabbis listened to their hopes and dreams, to who they are becoming and who they imagine they might someday be.

And they got to see us differently too. More than just being the people preaching from the pulpit, we became the daring ones down to get drenched. Screaming on rides. Eating dairy-free Dole Whip at Tiki Juice Bar. Laughing at ourselves. They saw their rabbis as real people who genuinely enjoy being with them.

And somewhere in all that talking and laughing, Jewish learning happened too. As we floated through "It's a Small World," singing along with the music, some of them began wondering aloud about what they were seeing. "Is this ride kinda racist?"

Suddenly we were talking about stereotypes and culture, about intention and impact, and whether something created with a message of unity can still make us uncomfortable today. All after floating past singing dolls.

For many of these kids, Disneyland Day precedes their Bar/Bat/B'nai Mitzvah year. Soon enough, they will stand on our bimah and be called into Jewish adulthood. We hope they will remember their Torah portion and the pride on their families' faces. But even more, we hope they will remember that they belong here. That their rabbis know them. That their synagogue is filled with people who care about who they are becoming.

Community does not suddenly happen because a thirteen-year-old walks onto the bimah. We have to build it beforehand.

Somewhere amid all that talking and laughing, we shared our cell phone numbers with the kids. It was a small gesture carrying a larger promise: When life gets complicated, when you have a question you're afraid to ask, when you need someone who knows you and cares about you, call. Text. We are here.

Pirkei Avot explains, Al tifrosh min hatzibur — "Do not separate yourself from the community."

That teaching presupposes something important: There has to be a community from which not to separate.

We build that community through relationships, shared experiences, laughter, listening, and showing up for one another.

Sometimes that happens around a Shabbat table or in a classroom. And sometimes, apparently, in a rainstorm at Disneyland.

So why would two rabbis spend a precious day in the rain at Disneyland the week before Rosh Hashanah?

Because belonging doesn't just happen. We build it.

Conversation by conversation. Selfie by selfie. Ride by ride.

Even in the rain.

Especially in the rain.

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Congregation Or Ami offers huge thanks to Andrew Fromer (Manager of Youth Engagement, Travel, and Music) who designed and led this Disneyland trip. And also to our amazing Youth Team: Matt Sniderman (Coordinator of Youth Leadership and Community), Ziva Gunther (Rabbinic Intern), and Micah Strok (Executive Assistant and Registrar) for helping to organize and lead this awesome day. This program was made possible with the support of the Harry and Judy Friedman Youth Enrichment Fund, which ensures that we are able to create immersive, engaging youth trips to bond youth to clergy and to Jewish values.