L’Shanah Tovah. Happy New Year. The word shanah comes from the same root as the word for change, so wishing someone a L’shanah tovah is hoping that they will have a good year and a good change. No ,not pennies and nickels and dimes. A change in attitude. A change in perspective. A change in behavior. A change to be the best you that you can be.
This period of time is about reflection and meditation, prayer and music, family and foods that may make us nostalgic. It can be about fear and trepidation. It can be about awe. It is about joy and celebration and hope. And it is about change. What are the changes YOU want to make in your life? How can YOU be the best YOU that you can be?
This year our Torah School families set the theme for this coming year, “Coming Together Again: Do Not Separate Yourselves from the Community” The quote comes from Pirke Avot. It was Hillel who said: do not separate yourself from the community.” Other translations are “from the congregation.”
We know that the nature of community is changing. The Jewish community and the sociwty at large. That was true even before the pandemic.
It is changing in a myriad of ways. We could do a deep dive into the Pew Research Study of 2020. https://www.jewishtogether.org/2020pewstud Some high level highlights. Don’t worry. There won’t be a test.
We are growing. There are more Jews today in the United States, roughly 7.5 million in 2020 compared with 2013, 6.7 million. We tend to feel that being Jewish can be a matter of religion, ancestry or culture or a combination. More say it is about culture. (55%) Which explains why one way we connect, our key word, remember, is through food. 70% of you like “traditional” Jewish food, which as the Pew Study people point out is an elastic term. Apples and honey anyone? Soon. Right here. Again. With a chance to vote for your favorite! And what about those briskets that I heard about all week? You are quite the treasure hunters. And that builds community. How about a full Sephardic Rosh Hashanah seder, with lots of symbolic foods for good luck! We’ll explore that on Sunday.
American Jews continue to “feel connected” to the Jewish people. 85% feel a great deal or some sens of belonging to the Jewish people. 79% feel a great deal of responsibility to help Jews in need. 76% say being Jewish is very or somewhat important to them. But here are the kickers—only 15% say that observing Jewish law is important. And only 35% of those who identify with a Jewish denomination or movement of stream of Judaism are synagogue members. And yet, 62% prioritize sharing holidays or cultural events with non-Jews. 57% visit synagogues and other historic Jewish sites while traveling. Some of you did that this summer. I certainly enjoyed all those pictures! And as I have said before, the most popular religious expression is attending a seder. 62%. Followed by attending a Jewish life cycle event, lighting a yahrseit candle or fasting on Yom Kippur.
So, if it is about connection…and people are not necessarily joining synagogues, what do people want in a community? What sets this community apart from other places you may belong? Those are the kind of things that we will explore in the next 10 days.
Now I may be preaching to the choir, because you are the ones who are here. Fully engaged. All of this has implications for us, right here, right now, at CKI as we embrace diversity and serve the Jewish community, here in the Fox River Valley.
Over the next 10 days, the next year we are coming together to explore what it means to be a community. To be in community. To belong.
Do you belong? Do you feel you belong here? Anywhere?
You may belong to a health club, a soccer or baseball team, a PTO, a dance troupe, an online forum or interest group, even a political party and even those form some kinds of community. But it is not the same as being connected here.
The Talmud (Shevuot 39a), teaches in discussing the domino effect of sin, concludes with the Aramaic phrase, Kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh, meaning all of Israel, all Jews are responsible for each other. But is more than worrying about sin. It is about taking care of one another, in good times—like the birth of a baby or in bad, like helping families mourn when tragedy strikes.
Let’s start with some basic definitions:
Belong:
to be attached or bound by birth, allegiance, or dependency. usually used with to. they belong to their homeland. to be a member of a club, organization, or group.
Community:
- a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. “the scientific community” attitudes, interests values and goals.
- a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, values and goals. “the sense of community that organized religion can provide.”
Both have a sense of connection. And that seems right. What people seem to want from community and from religion is a sense of connection. The word religion comes from the Latin, religio, to tie back up into, or to be connected. Emerson talked about this in one of his essays. The idea that when we leave our homes of origin, we go searching for something to replace that sense of love and belonging.
Psalm 27 which the Bromets will read shortly, has a verse that says, “Though my father and mother leave me, the LORD will take me in.” Let that sink in. G-d will take you in. G-d loves you. G-d created you. And G-d will take you in. That brings us hope. But not just G-d, but your community. This community. Religion and the Jewish Community are an opportunity to find YOUR place, Your home, Your meaning in the world after the security (we hope) of being a child with your mother and your father.
And then we offer such hope and consolation to the person sitting next to us—or maybe even on Zoom. Our technology communities are one way, or many ways we stay connected. Community is about being kind. It is about being present. It is about being non-judgmental, About safe spaces. It’s about meeting people where they are, wherever they are on their journey.
Hillel also teaches, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me. If I am only for myself, what am I and if not now when,”
So maybe what distinguishes the Jewish community from other communities, is being there for one another, in good times and bad. New opportunities to engage with Judaism, with G-d, with other Jews and community keep emerging. Perhaps you like meditating. Try Institute of Jewish Spirituality. Perhaps you like Shabbat dinner with friends. One Table will be happy to supply you with all the things you need. Perhaps you are concerned about rising anti-semitism. Check out organizations like the ADL or Stop the Hate whose buttons are on the back table. Perhaps Israel is your core focus. Check out any number of Israel focused organizations and agencies. Perhaps you have young children or grandchildren. PJ Library, Kveller, are great places to start and I am especially proud of our Chai Babies group. They are really building community. So do the Torah School parents, every week they sit here and schmoze and drink coffee while their kids are in school.
One of the new organizations to emerge has edgy billboards. One is up on 294, near Dempster. “So you eat bacon. G-d has bigger things to worry about. JewBelong.” They want to appeal to a younger crowd that may be as they say disengaged Jews. Their website and their billboards are captivating.
https://www.jewbelong.com/why-jewbelong/
Each of us brings something to the community. Each of us has a gift to share. Each of us helps build this place. But what if we don’t share.
There is a Jewish folktale that illustrates this:
“There was once a king who was visiting a town. In preparation for the king’s visit the town decided to fill a giant barrel with wine and present it to the king upon his arrival. Where were they going to get so much wine to fill the giant barrel? They came up with a brilliant idea; each family of the town would bring one flask filled with wine and pour it into the giant barrel and this way the barrel would fill with wine.
They placed a Giant barrel in the center of the town with a ladder reaching to the top and every day people lined up to pour their flask of wine into the barrel.
The day finally arrived and the king visited the town. The people were so excited to present the king with this wonderful gift. The king was shown the barrel and was given a kingly goblet. They filled his goblet with wine from the giant barrel. The towns people were shocked by the look on the king’s face as he drank the wine, the king was obviously very unhappy. When asked why he was so unhappy he responded, “It’s just plain water”.
It turns out that each family thought to themselves why should I be the one to pour in a flask of wine I will pour in water instead, I am sure no one will notice if there is just one flask of water among all that wine. Everyone in the town made the same calculation and so no one poured in wine but rather water instead. Everyone was relying on someone else” https://www.chabadofmv.com/templates/blog/post_cdo/aid/1086982/postid/17549
There are several versions of this story. Sometimes it is a King. Sometimes it is rabbi, It doesn’t matter, although king seems appropriate for Rosh Hashanah, since we talk about this being the day where we coronate the king.
There are many gifts we bring to build this Holy Place, our community. We may bring wine. We may bring challah. We may bring apples or honey or table clothes or even toilet bowl cleaner and toilet paper. We hope that we may bring the gift of ourselves. Debbie Friendman, of blessed memory wrote a song, Holy Place, to illustrate this:
These are the gifts that we bring
that we may build a holy place.
This is the spirit that we bring
that we may build a holy place.
We will bring all the goodness
that comes from our hearts
And the spirit of God will dwell within…..
These are the colours of our dreams
we bring to make a holy place.
This is the weaving of our lives
we bring to make a holy place.
We will bring all the goodness
that comes from our hearts
And the spirit of love will dwell within…..
These are the prayers that we bring
that we may make a holy place.
These are the visions that we seek
that we may build this holy place.
Let our promise forever be strong,
let our souls rise together in song,
that the spirit of God
and the spirit of love,
Shechinah,
will dwell within.
If community is about connection, then we build connection one person at a time, one story at a time, one life cycle event at a time. It’s like the old bar Cheers where everyone knows your name, but more than your name. Your story, your essence, your Torah.
On the back table you will find friendship bracelets. Little pieces of yarn to remind you that you are connected. That you belong. That you have a friend. Please feel free to take one and wear it proudly.
Pirke Avot also teaches, “Ours is not to finish the task. Neither are we free to ignore it.” When you move to the back of the room to enjoy apples and honey and vote for your favorite one, you will be building community and connection. Sure, say shana tova to your friends who you may not have seen in too long. But make sure that you also introduce to someone you may not know.