Rabbi finds lost tribe?

As I was exploring the Volunteer Hawaii website, I came across a request for volunteers to help with a communal Honolulu pet blessing day in June. Sounded fun and up my alley and there was no indication of any particular faith so I responded to the post. A wonderful woman named Irene wrote me back.

She explained that the pet blessing was going to be held by the Shinto community at one of the Shinto temples. Since I wrote her from my rabbijosh email address, she asked if I was a rabbi.

When I confirmed this, she invited me to consider being one of the blessers with the Shinto priests provided I was comfortable wearing traditional Japanese robes that they would allow me to loan. Costumes?! Pets?! I replied, "I am in."

She then invited me to come to their Spring Thanksgiving Festival which was sooner. She also indicated that she had many Jewish friends with whom she worked and often went to seder. In fact, she said some scholars pose the theory that the originators of Shintoism were in fact, a lost tribe of Israel as there are many commonalities.

I do not know much about Shintoism, though up until recently it was the national religion of Japan. Though many people, Japanese included do not consider it a religion, but more of a cultural expression or philosophy. Some see it as pagan because like other indigenous faiths, it recognizes God's presence in all things--but it seems to me to be like Reconstructionism where it recognizes that God's presence works through nature.

The ceremony was very intricate. The sanctuary was small but exquisite in a elevated but simplistic way. The priests' robes were beautiful and very colorful. (I am hoping for purple or robin's egg blue.) Afterwards, we were invited to a feast where we listened to some traditional Japanese music, watched Japanese dance, and saw karate demonstrations. Brian was a great sport and came with me to the celebration. We even were in the group picture.

Irene was the consummate hostess; her husband was one of the priests. We didn't get to talk much, but we did have lunch the following week. I look forward to getting to know her better and to understand better what the similarities are between our faiths. She was also very flattering to me saying she searched me on the web and couldn't believe I had done all that I had but was as young as I am. While flattery will get you everywhere, I was more impressed that she had read about me (clearly the net identifies my orientation!) and was as open as she was.

Hawaii is not the most open place for LGBT people. Like the south there are some hard core fundamentalists here. Many Hawaiian churches actively proselytize and send missions to Asia. But Irene explained that Japanese culture has generally been very accepting of gay people, especially in the Shinto tradition where gay people had a ritual function.

I may not have discovered a lost tribe, but I am learning about a whole new tradition.