Yesterday was day 42. Some would say that 42 is the answer to everything. Others would quickly add something about Jackie Robinson. Today is about the sovereignty of bonding. The very foundation on which we stand.

It was also the night of the congregational election. Elections in any organization are a milestone, a chance to reflect on the past year and see how far we’ve come and where we want to go. There was a lot of discussion before the election about who is a member, who can vote. Does it mean someone who has met all their financial obligations? Someone who is Jewish? How is that defined? Do households get one vote for every adult or is it one vote per household? Are the bylaws clear? Why aren’t the bylaws clearer? Interpreting bylaws and their intention can be like interpreting Torah or the US Constitution. The discussions were healthy if heated and in the end the election was a non-issue, an almost nothing event.

For my d’var Torah, I talked about counting. This week’s Torah portion is the beginning of the book of Numbers because it starts with a census. We are to count each member of the tribe. Man, woman and children all count. We make our days count. We count the Omer. We count to make sure that we have a minyan, at least 10 righteous adults. We count. That is part of how we create a holy community.

Then I told the joke of my professor Rabbi Zlotowitz. One of his professors who was from Germany used to say to his class, “Boychiks, today we are going to study the basement of Judaism.” He had confused the words basement and foundation in Judaism. BUT, at some levels, word deliberately chosen, counting is the basement, the foundation. Without people who care about Judaism we should fold up our tents and go home. Without people who care about each other, then the synagogue will will cease to exist. Without people who work diligently, then the building will collapse literally into the basement. And we have people here who have spent lots of time in our basement lately, cleaning, sorting, rescuing, working on the pipes.

Before I came to Elgin, one of our members walked me around the block and with tears in his eyes talked about the need for his foundation to be firm. Paraphrasing, “I love Judaism and I am willing to bend, to blow in the breeze but I need to know that the rock I am standing on is firm. That it is not something else. That it is Judaism.”

This is the week where we study yesod, foundation, or bonding. Prke Aovt, the Wisdom of the Fathers,a part of the Talmud because it is seven chapters, many Jews study between Passover and Shavuot as part of the Omer period of seven weeks, Pirke Avot said it so well for this congregation (I used the quote yesterday in my blog.) Pirke Avot teaches, “Every assembly whose purpose is to serve G-d will, in the end be established. But every assembly whose purpose is not for G-d’s sake, will not in the end be established.
The word assembly, knesis, is the same root as kneseth, We are an assembly of Israel. We have stood up and been counted. We must keep our focus on the foundation of the assembly: On Torah, On Avodah, On Gemilut Chasidim. We must do this because as we serve each other and build community, a kneseth Israel, we are serving G-d. Then our foundation, our basement will remain firm.