Rosh Hashanah Hollywood Style

On Rosh Hashanah I headed up to Hollywood to go to Rosh Hashanah services with Evan. Why Hollywood? Well, there is a free service at The Laugh Factory. I had no idea what to expect, but turned out to be a fairly standard service that just used the laugh factory as a room to hold it. I think it was the first time I had balcony seats for services. For the most part the crowd was what you would expect from services anywhere. Although no teenagers (I assume any family with kids around that age belong to a synagogue). Well, mostly what you would expect - the blond, plastic looking grandmother who sat next to me had a very large purse. After the purse made a sound she opened it for a moment and there was a small poodle in it. I was wondering if the service would include anything weird since it was in Hollywood. The only thing that was a bit different is the last song we sang was about peace and we sang it in both Hebrew and Arabic. They also had apples, honey and challah for everyone afterwards. Apparently someone sponsors the whole thing and requests that people in return make a charitable donation of their choosing.

After services we headed to the Chinese Consulate in downtown LA. I would describe it as somewhere between a post office and the DMV, but primarily in Chinese. When they finally called my number I handed the person my forms and passport, expecting her to look at them and give back the passport. She put a rubber band around them all, tossed them in a box, handed me a piece of paper and said come back Tuesday. So now the Chinese government has my passport until I drive back to LA (on a week day between 9 am and 3 pm with $100).

Next we headed to wait in the standby line for The Tonight Show. We got in, but sat in the very back next to the guy running the spot light. The guests were Terry Bradshaw, Marie Osmond, and Michael Buble. The show had some good jokes and it was interesting to see what happened off camera. The part I did not realize is that they go through in a single run and the breaks between segments are the same amount of time as commercial breaks. So while it is not actually live, it is taped like it is.

Probably the most unusual Rosh Hashanah I've ever had, although not nearly as odd as it could have been.