Day 1 Rosh Hashanah - Cheers to sixty years and beyond:
This year, our community celebrates sixty years of life, achievement, commemorating joy, sadness, educating our young and our old, providing spirituality and meaning to the sacred moments of birth, bnai mitzvah, marriage and death. We have enriched our community with experiences of daily prayer, Torah study, mitzvah observance, and tikun olam - the repair of the world.
"Sixty years" is a great milestone. Many synagogues in North America do not make it to sixty. The reasons may include demographic change or even disinterest. Let it not be said that our shul should live till "hunderet un tzvansik, ad meah v'esrim, till a hundred and twenty." May we envision a legacy that lasts much longer.
As we have already seen in synagogue literature, the number "60" is a great number by which to celebrate and evaluate this transition point in the life of our synagogue. The Hebrew letter "Samech" means support. Each day, in the Amidah and in Ashrei, we recite our praise of God who "supports the fallen." As Jews, we are taught "imitatio deo," to imitate or emulate the attributes of God. We are command to do our part in the task of "Somech Noflim - supporting the fallen." At some point, we all fall and need someone to raise us up. The fall may be a a spiritual fall, a crisis in faith. The fall may be a more tangible one coming from loss of job, confronting illness, mourning a death, dealing with divorce, losing our children to a different value system.
As individuals and as a community, "Somech Noflim - Do we measure up to the task of supporting those who fall? In my own rabbinate, I publically expressed my own vulnerability at times I lost my parents, and five years ago when I confronted a personal change in my life. Thank God, so many people who knew me as their rabbi also recognized that I was a person and supported me, raised me up when I was falling down.
The Talmud asks, what does the Torah mean when it says, "aharei hashem telechu? - you shall follow after God?" The answer given by the Sages is to emulate the middot - the attributes of God. "As God clothes the naked, we must clothe the naked. As God visits the sick, we must visit the sick. As God buries the dead, we must bury the dead." All of these are examples of "Somech Noflim - raising up those who are falling." God clothed Adam and Eve, making God the original "Lord and Taylor." God visited Abraham after the elderly patriarch performed his own Brit Milah. God buried Moses in a place that no person has ever identified.
All of us would prefer to be the one lifting up the other, but the fact is no one is exempt from falling. All of us will fall in one way or another. There is no way around it.
I believe that one of the litmus tests for a synagogue is to assess how well we can identify the fallen without embarrassing or humiliating them. How well do we accord each person around us with respect, honor, and dignity? How well do we lift up each other's body, heart, spirit, and soul?
As we take these few moments to acknowledge our shul's sixtieth year, I ponder over the specific letters which comprise the letter "Samech." They are "samech, mem, and chaf," which numerically are 60, 40, and 20. Each number represents a particular demographic found in this sanctuary right now - the 20 plus, the 40 plus, and the 60 plus. When you joined Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda - Hebrew Men of England, how old were you? Why did you join this shul? What did you bring to the shul? and what did the shul bring to you?
As you sit here today,ask the same questions in the present tense. How old are you now? Why do you currently belong to this shul? What do you bring to the shul? and what does the shul bring to you?
As you ponder the future, who will join our shul moving forward? 20 plus year olds? 40 plus year olds? 60 plus year olds? What will they bring to the shul? and what will the shul bring to them?
Many people in North America are concerned about the present and future of synagogue life. Will there be a synagogue tomorrow? Has the synagogue lost its relevance? As a new generation of Jews defines its quest for spirituality and Jewishness in a different way, how will we study this question? How will we respond?
A synagogue, like an organism, is an evolving thing. On a daily basis, a person looks the same. If you take a snapshot of the same person over separate periods of time, you will notice how that person has changed.
So too, a synagogue - on a day to day basis, synagogue life looks the same. If, however, one took a snapshot of our shul in action in the 1960's, the 1970's, the 1980's, the 1990's, the early 2000's, and now, one will notice how our shul has evolved.
How do we preserve and grow a synagogue in a way that will retain the message and purpose which attracted you when you joined at 20 plus, 40 plus, and sixty plus; and at the same time, encourage a new generation of 20 plus, 40 plus, and 60 plus year olds to come under our wing?
A sixtieth year is a fine time to a conduct a "Heshbon nefesh kehilati - a communal self analysis." During these next ten days, each of us as individuals is tasked to perform his or her own "heshbon nefesh - spiritual self analysis. So too, from time to time, the synagogue must also be tasked to perform its own "cheshbon nefesh." As we do so, we miight decide that our values are timeless and what needs to change might be the methodology in how to transmit these values in a relevant and enriching way. We may find that certain values have had their day and need to be replaced by different values. We may find that it is difficult to distinguish between values and methods.
As our shul celebrates its sixtieth year, I personally celebrate my fifteenth year as rabbi of our shul. I have witnessed a congregation committed to the highest standards of liturgical music, but I have also seen an evolution in the methods of how we convey those standards.
I have witnessed a shul committed to daily prayer, but I have seen changes in how the experience of daily prayer is conveyed, from multiple minyanim on shabbat morning to allowing shabbat morning bat mitzvah in the main sanctuary, to only recently allowing young children into the sanctuary on the High Holy Days, to allowing a private service in which one can ask for separate seating or a mix-gendered torah reading without impacting on the ritual style of congregational services.
I have witnessed a shul which has always been Zionistic and which enables young people to study in Israel on scholarships. Our shul brings first timers and seasoned visitors to Israel. Only last year, we began the new tradition of bringing in shinshinim, Israeli teenage emissaries, to enrich our commitment to Israel.
I have witnessed a shul which fifteen years ago did nothing about the GTA's hungry and homeless. Now our shul operates one of the best Out of the Cold programs in the area.
A snapshot taken in my first year here fifteen years ago to the present day shows some interesting evolutionary changes in our values and/or our methodology in transmitting values.
Sixty years ago, the North American Jewish community shared certain assumptions. Emerging from the Eastern European experience, every neighborhood established at least one synagogue. Everybody affiliated with a shul. Everybody actively supported their shul. Synagogues were largely identified as Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox. The same denominational shul in different locations looked largely the same in its ritual style and how it reflected Jewish values. Sixty years ago, we needed the synagogue as a safe haven, a community centre in its own right, and the place to educate our young.
Fast forward - Take a snapshot sixty years later. Less Jews are affiliating with synagogues. Fewer people actively support their shuls. Two synagogues calling themselves the same denomination can look and feel very different from each other. In years past, we may have asked - "Do you belong to a Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox synagogue?" Nowadays, we are inclined to ask - "Do you belong to any kind of synagogue?"
I have learned recently myself to change some age-old assumptions and rhetoric.
Building programs is less important than building relationships.
Denominational labels are less important than sharing ideas.
Judaism needs to be less educational and more transformational.
Allow me to explain these three points: I personally define my Judaism by belonging to relational Judaism, ideational Judaism, and transformational Judaism.
Relational Judaism is a way of life established on building and maintaining relationships based on mutual trust, care, and respect. I believe that moving forward, one is more inclined to join a shul and be active because he/she feels connected to the people who attend. The fostering of healthy relationships between individuals, couples, and families with children will preserve and grow the synagogue of the future. A first step right now is do you know the names of the people sitting next to you. Take a moment. Introduce yourself to someone outside your family unit, and wish him/her a shanah tovah. How can we connect with that higher power if we cannot connect with those sitting around us? Thus begins relational Judaism.
Ideational Judaism is a way of life established on sharing ideas. The ideas may be old, current, new, provocative. If ideas are "L'shem shamayim - for the sake of heaven," meaning they are sincerely intended for the betterment of our community, then they should be considered without be prejudged or labelled. In the past, I have witnessed ideas being quickly dismissed. The person offering the idea is criticized. The comment is labelled as being too left or right, too reform or orthodox. Let's throw away the labels. A heatlhy vibrant Judaism welcomes all ideas which are intended to improve or refine our community. Thus begins ideational Judaism.
Like the movie, Transformers, transformational Judaism means that in any Jewish context, be it attending and participating in a service, a class, an Israeli dance, a lecture, performing a deed of kindness, we must emerge from that experience feeling enriched, changed, and transformed in some way from the moment we first entered that particular experience. Whereas education impacts only on the mind, transformation impacts our whole sense of being: the mind, the heart, the hand, and the soul. When you leave this service feeling different from the way you entered, you will have begun to experience transformational Judaism.
One of my favorite expressions comes from Pirkei Avot, The teachings of the Sages:
'"Da Ma'Ayin Baata;
u'L'an Atta Holech;
V'Lifnei Mi Atta Atid Litain din V'Cheshbon."
"Know from whence you have come;
Chart in what direction you are going;
and before whom you must give an ultimate account."
This prescriptive advice is timely for our congregation. The value of being a member of our synagogue lies not in its final destination, for no one makes it fully to the finish line one envisions. Rather, the value is experiencing the journey we are on right now. This year, we celebrate the journey of sixty years thus far. Let us celebrate the sixty years that was and build the foundation for the sixty years and beyond that is to be. May we journey together in the year 5775 with health, happiness, prosperity, and meaning.
I wish to express my gratitude to each and everyone of you for joining our shul, growing with our shul, and continuing into the next sixty years with our shul, from strength to strength.
I dedicate this Rosh Hashanah sermon to the memory of my mother, Helen Morrison, of blessed memory. Her journey in this world ended on this date fifteen years ago, but her legacy will endure forever.
Rabbi Howard Morrison
Senior Clergy
Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue
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