What if we stop worrying about getting things exactly right and live in the moment?
What if we forget the pictures from Better Homes and Gardens about how our houses should look, especially at the holidays, and concentrate on how we treat the people in our homes?
What if we move from a culture of obligation to a culture of desire, of delight?

Then this showed up in my Facebook feed from Rabbi Bradley Artson:

Perfect. The Psalmist said, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before G-d’s presence with singing.” (Psalm 100). Seems simple, no? Sometimes we make it all so complicated. All G-d wants, all G-d desires is that we serve G-d. With song. With music. With joy.

Psalm 100 is not part of typical Jewish liturgy. I learned this psalm as a song at Girl Scout Camp. This summer I was privileged to hear Pastor Nat Edmond of Second Baptist Church made this point this summer at the celebration of his church’s 150^th anniversary. He boils it down to “Shout. Serve. Sing.” Easy.

This is what I told my board last night. We started by singing happy birthday to one of our board members. She chose to be at CKI last night, even though it was her birthday. Yom Huledet Samayach. Happy Birthday. We are joyous, samayach on the day of your birth!

It connects nicely with the paradigm shift I am trying to create. We need to come to synagogue not out of some vague sense of obligation. Not because we owe it to our parents or grandparents, or looking forward to our children and grandchildren. Or even to our fellow congregants. We need to come to synagogue because it brings us joy and we want to share that joy. Shout it out. Sing praise. Because we ourselves want to be there. Because we desire to be there. Because we desire to serve G-d with joy. Because we want to sing. Because it is good for us. Because it is good for G-d. Because it brings us joy.

It is our job as a board to make sure that can happen for everyone who enters our doors. It is also as my original typo suggests, it is our JOY.

Then as the song I taught on Shabbat teaches, “Those who keep the Sabbath can call it a delight, an oneg Shabbat.”