Friday, October 3, 2008
By Paul Heintz
With the High Holidays approaching, Rabbi Levi Druk had a mission. As director of the newly-established Chabad-Lubavitch of Downtown Baltimore, he learned that, in years past, patients at the city’s hospitals had trouble fulfilling the traditional practices of Rosh Hashanah, including hearing the penultimate call to repentance: the blowing of the shofar.
“Unfortunately, these weren’t exactly places where people who knew how to blow the ram’s horn were hanging out,” he said.
Ever the man with the plan, Druk pledged that this year would be different: For Rosh Hashanah, which begins this year the evening of Sept. 29, he’ll be sending a small army of volunteers to the city’s hospitals. He’s spent the past week mustering the troops at a special shofar boot camp, an intensive program designed to teach local Jewish community members not only how to blow the ram’s horn, but also the Torah teachings behind the important ceremony.
“It’s definitely a lot like boot camp,” remarked Joshua Wnuk, a chemistry graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. “You only have a week to learn how to do it, and do it a lot.”
Wnuk should know. After taking part in Naval ROTC in high school a decade ago, he decided to join the Navy and found himself at boot camp not long after graduation. It was then – thanks to the unhappy coincidence of Yom Kippur taking place during basic training – that Wnuk learned how difficult it can be to fulfill one’s religious obligations.
“I wasn’t even able to fast,” he recalled. “My commanding officer instructed me that this was boot camp and fasting was not an option. I felt so isolated.”
After being forced to eat his meals, Wnuk – a four-year varsity athlete – threw his back out later that day.
“The doctor took one look at me and said, ‘Son, you’re done.’ So I fast every year on Yom Kippur,” he said. “That may add to why I feel so strongly about helping people to fulfill the mitzvahs that one must observe on holy days.”
In Baltimore, Wnuk will be one of eight supporters of the local Chabad House who will circulate through the University of Maryland Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Mercy Medical Center during the two-day holiday, checking in with Jewish patients to offer their services, as well as a supportive ear.
Druk had plenty of help in putting together the training program. Two local stores donated instruments, and several hospital chaplains volunteered their time to put the volunteers in touch with the right patients.
One of the chaplains, Rabbi Tzvi Schur of Baltimore’s Jewish Community Services, said that he had a very good reason to lend a hand. After undergoing open-heart surgery two days before Rosh Hashanah last year, Schur found himself unable to attend synagogue during the holiday. His wife called a friend, Rabbi Zev Gopin of Chabad at Johns Hopkins University, who offered to visit her husband and blow the shofar.
“I remember nothing else,” said Schur, a chaplain at Johns Hopkins Hopsital. “I just remember the shofar. He came at 6 p.m. both [days]. I was worried he wouldn’t come, but both [days] he came. I fulfilled the mitzvah and I felt fulfilled.
