Wandering Through a Different Desert

Moses and Moab: Dancing, dining and communing with nature, the Adventure Rabbi and 185 others spent the first night of Pesach in Utah’s Moab desert. Courtesy of Adventure Rabbi

by Randi Sherman

As nearly 200 people hiked around a desert corner, Moses stood on a ledge above them, shoeless, with staff in hand, leading his people towards Corona Arch.
Fine, it wasn’t Moses, just an Adventure Rabbi staff member dressed as Moses, bringing another bit of fun to the organization’s first-ever Passover in the Desert last weekend in Moab, Utah.
The organization, founded by Rabbi Jamie Korngold and her husband, and lead guide, Jeff Finkelstein in 2001, aims to bring Judaism back to nature, showing, as in Rabbi Korngold’s new book, that there is “God in the Wilderness.”
“This holiday is all about going into the midbar, the wilderness,” Rabbi Korngold said. “Judaism began in the wilderness, and certain lessons can be understood better outdoors. There’s a

reason God gave us the Ten Commandments on top of a mountain.”
After the 186 participants pitched their tents on Saturday afternoon, a family seder was held for the 15 children under 5 and their parents. Then the group hike through the desert began, as everyone made their way to the arch, climbing ladders and ropes and talking about what enslaves them.
Reaching the arch, Rabbi Korngold and Adventure Rabbi’s rabbinic intern, Jessica Marshall, unrolled the Torah; the latter read the Exodus story straight from the scroll. Here they also stopped to read the Haggadah, created by the Adventure Rabbi team to incorporate Reform traditions and nature-relevant passages. Singing Miriam’s song, Rabbi Korngold was surprised by how excited everyone became, dancing around and singing under the late afternoon desert sun.
After the return hike, everyone sat down to a catered dinner, laid out on 100-yard expanses of bright blue fabric on the desert floor. Celebrating late into the night, participants woke up the next morning to matzah brei and a bike ride through the desert.
Among those in attendance was Rabbi Jessica Zimmerman, director of congregational engagement for Synagogue 3000. The only other time she’s brought hiking boots to a seder was when she served as a rabbi in Juneau, Alaska. Looking for a “new, creative, outside-the-box Jewish opportunity,” she signed herself up. She wasn’t disappointed.
Marti Fischer, who had Rabbi Korngold officiate at her daughter’s bat mitzvah at Copper Mountain, Colo., in February, attended the seder with her 16-year-old son Jack. The two boarded multiple airplanes and endured hours of driving to reach Moab, but “it was worth every second it took to get there,” she said.
“You’ve heard the story hundreds of times, but this was almost a re-enactment. Out of all the seders I’ve sat through, which usually blend into one another, this could never blend into anything.”

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