Have Torah, Will Raft

White-water adventurers mark Shabbat in the Grand Canyon.

March 13, 2009

Eric Fingerhut
Washington Jewish Week

Question: Would you go on a trip like this?

Every year, thousands of tourists experience the grandeur of the Grand Canyon. To some, the visit is a spiritual one.

But how many people read Torah in the canyon?

Some two dozen Orthodox Jews did just that on an 11-day white-water rafting tour of the Grand Canyon that allowed them to hold daily prayer services, observe Shabbat and keep kosher.

It all started with Silver Spring, Md., resident Phil Lehman, 62, said he had heard of an earlier kosher excursion, but “I never thought that I could do it.”

He’s the one, though, who ended up doing much of the organizing and recruiting for a trip that was years in the making.

The venture was inspired by a similar one that another Silver Spring resident, Steve Rolef, 58, had organized as a kosher tour of the canyon’s upper portion.

While that trip included kosher food, it lasted only from Monday to Friday—so no Shabbat observance was necessary.

But a tour of the lower half of the canyon customarily takes eight days, which meant it would have to include at least one Shabbat.

“I’d done other rafting,” said Mr. Rolef, and “I just always wanted to do this” particular trip.

He approached the group that had run the previous tour, the Flagstaff, Ariz.-based Outdoors Unlimited (whose initials are coincidentally the same as the kosher-certifying group Orthodox Union).

Officials told him that if he could guarantee a full, 24-person trip, they would run the tour with only a slight increase in cost to cover the additional days that would be required to make up for the two days the group would be observing Shabbat.

The tour also needed one more supply raft than normal, to carry the extra dishes and cooking supplies required to keep kosher.

“If they wouldn’t have been willing, I wouldn’t have been able to go,” said Mr. Rolef, “but they were willing to do it.”

Mr. Lehman put out the word on synagogue bulletins, posted signs in local Jewish businesses and counted on word-of-mouth to fill the two dozen spots. Ten of the group’s participants came from the Washington area.

Originally, the group voted not to take a Torah, fearing that bringing a scroll on such an adventure might put it in danger. But one participant thought it was essential, and bought a waterproof case to protect the Holocaust-rescued Torah that he borrowed from his rabbi.

That small Torah, everyone agreed, made the trip all the more special.

“It enhanced the experience, no doubt,” said Mr. Rolef. “There’s never been a sefer Torah at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.”

“We were doing something that’s never been done before,” said Mr. Lehman.

They ended up reading from it frequently on the trip, not only twice on Shabbat, but also at the morning minyanim on Monday and Thursday and on the Rosh Chodesh that fell during the tour.

To prepare for Shabbat, noted Mr. Lehman, the travelers had to set up what was likely the Grand Canyon’s first ever eruv, a demarcation that allows observers to carry on the Sabbath.

They filled buckets with a sand and water mixture, planted poles in the buckets and then strung wire along the poles.

Mr. Lehman said the tour guides also looked for a camp site with plenty of shade, considering they would be in the same place the entire day—in an area where temperatures reach well past 100 degrees.

Shabbat required one more adjustment: Anyone who needed to find the makeshift bathroom facilities after dark couldn’t use a flashlight on the Sabbath. So, on Friday evening, the guides set up a row of “glow sticks” to mark the route.

Mr. Rolef said spending Shabbat in the Grand Canyon hearkened back to biblical times and the years the Jews spent in the Sinai.

“It gives you an appreciation of living your whole life in the desert,” he said.

“God made places like this so we can appreciate what this world is all about. I don’t believe such magnificence happens by accident.”

The initial Shabbat came at a good time—the first night of the trip, just after the group had concluded a 7 1/2-mile hike down the canyon.

“We were still in shell shock,” recalled Betty Kramer, and had the feeling of “Thank God for Shabbat.” Mrs. Kramer and her husband, Harvey, are Silver Spring residents, too.

The group ate kosher food throughout the trip, with Outdoors Unlimited buying new grills for the trip and purchasing the food at a kosher market.

“Not only did they get everything kosher, but they made great meals,” Mr. Lehman said.

Outdoors Unlimited manager and trip leader Bert Jones already was somewhat familiar with Jewish dietary laws from his leading the previous kosher trip. He learned about Shabbat and other Jewish tidbits from conversations with Mr. Lehman and by reading the “Judaism 101” Web site.

“It was enjoyable [and] we learned a lot,” Mr. Jones said about himself and his fellow guides. Participants “were quite willing to teach [the guides] things we didn’t know or understand.”

Mr. Lehman billed this trip as a possible “once in a lifetime” experience, since he’s not sure that anyone else could gather enough observant Jews together for a company to arrange a similar trip again.

But Mr. Rolef believes that when others hear about their trip, they might be interested.

“I hope he’s [Lehman] not right,” said Mr. Rolef. “People who enjoy the outdoors would really get a lot out of an experience like this.”