The festival of Passover will soon be upon us and I wanted to share a wonderful article written by one of my teachers, Rabbi Richard Address. Enjoy!
http://jewishsacredaging.com/2012/04/03/passover-and-the-cleansing-of-the-soul/
Rabbi Michael Shields came to the Lake Norman region as the first full-time Rabbi more than two years ago. The congregation has grown from 55 families to 120; from 40 children in our religious school to 105, and from limited monthly services, programming and community time, to weekly opportunities. Children actually enjoy their religious school experience and our adults regularly take part in Jewish learning.
His vision at the Lake Norman Jewish Congregation is to build the kind of Jewish community that Lake Norman needs. The ideals of the Reform movement provide a framework for that progressive Jewish community.
Rabbi Shields is always glad to meet with current or prospective members, as well as anyone curious about Judaism. All are welcomed unconditionally at The Lake Norman Jewish Congregation. A true Jewish community is made up of diverse people who take care of each other. You have a place in our congregational family and Rabbi Shields looks forward to welcoming you! As one of his rabbis once wrote: “The synagogue is a kehilah kedoshah– a sacred community. Like a sukkah, it is constructed of many different branches woven together: the young, the old, the rich and the poor, the married and the unmarried, single parents, grandparents, gays and heterosexuals, non-Jewish spouses. The broader the Sukkah’s reach, the more tightly its branches are woven, the stronger it stands. So, too, the synagogue: the greater variety of people welcomed within it, the closer they feel to one another, the stronger the temple stands.”
Rabbi Shields is available during office hours or you can join him for a relaxing walk or a cup of coffee at Summit (our local coffee shop in Davidson. You can e-mail him at rabbishields@lakenormanjc.org to set a time.
Tags: Passover
Jewish life in the Lake Norman region has flourished over the past four years. In the past decade the community has grown from a couple dozen families to more than 175 families. This encompasses more than 500 souls and 130 students in our religious schools. We have all come to understand better what it means to be a sacred community.
Jewish life in the North has grown dramatically, and we have managed to maintain the intimacy that comes with a community focused congregation. The Jewish community is a powerful connection point for so many more people, but like the bar in Cheers everyone still knows your name. Every person is counted and cherished. Every individual can help the community grow its excellent programming.
As the Rabbi I have learned three important values that the community holds dear:
1) “Kol Yisrael Aravim Zeh B’zeh” – Mutual Responsibility
We like to say that we will “Make Great mistakes together.” While we do not seek out mistakes, this mantra reflects our deep sense of responsibility to each other as we take up this community building endeavor. We face challenges together boldly, knowing that our fellow members will be there to celebrate successes but also to correct and learn from missteps. By relying on each other and our collective wisdom we marshal our resources to good communal ends.
2) Every Tradition Was Once A New Idea
We welcome tradition and the adaptation of beautiful customs and ideas from other places, but we also believe strongly that new ideas can come from anyone – young, “young at heart,” and everyone in between. Every individual has the potential to help us be radically innovative when the need arises. We need “all hands on deck,” and welcome new voices to join our chorus and sit with us at our shared table. “We are not your grandmother’s congregation,” but we love grandma and all that she can teach us.
3) Im tirzu ein zo agadah – “If you will it, it is no longer a dream.”
With all the pieces (people) we have and all the ones we will add in the months and years to come we can be dreamers. We can envision the community we want and make that dream a reality. This is a sacred responsibility and an empowering and meaningful way to engage in Judaism.
This is an exciting time to be part of the Jewish community up at Lake Norman. The Greater Charlotte Community can now claim two full time Jewish communal centers: The established bastion of Shalom Park, and the dynamic and spirited northern community based in Davidson.
It truly has been a Shanah Tovah (A Good Year) and there is still much more to come. We welcome all to join with us on this communal journey.
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On Thursday January 19, Julie Bernstein of the Israel Action Network came and spoke about how the members of our community can advocate responsibly for the State of Israel. For those who missed it, you can get information at www.israelactionetwork.org. It is important for all of us to be educated about the facts and the situation in Israel and the territories inhabited by Palestinians, but what is most important is that we emphasize the unified desire of all those who love Israel to help make progress in establishing a lasting and secure peace for the Jewish State and its neighbors.
Julie shared with us tips on how to have meaningful conversations with other Jews but also with the wider community. The most profound part of her talk was when she addressed a question of differing perspectives and tactics by Jewish groups. Instead of pitting one Jewish group against another, one Jew against his brother, she challenged us to think of all Jews as fitting into one of two categories; prophets or guardians.
The prophetic voice calls on Israel and Jewish people to live up to the higher standard that our tradition demands. We are called to be a light unto the nations, and therefore, at the same time that the prophets love Israel, they call on it to protect the needy, the orphan, the sick, whether Israeli or not.
The guardians are a different brand of patriot. They stand at attention, ever-vigilant to the external and existential threats to the Jewish homeland. Both the ‘Prophets’ and the ‘Guardians’ love the State of Israel. Israel is the reason they do what they do. We each have a bit of ‘prophet’ and a bit of guardian in us. It is a spectrum. The balance between the voices and the wrestling of the two voices is what can lead to a vigilant but compassionate approach to the challenges and fears Israelis face everyday and the hardship that many individual Palestinians encounter.
So let us begin there. We are all guardians and prophets. We all must struggle with our love for the State of Israel.
Our community is at a pivotal stage in our development. For six years many people have labored for the communal good. In Jewish tradition, the seventh year, at least for the ancient Israelite agricultural system was considered a sabbatical year, a year of rest. One might think that this meant a year of doing nothing. That would be wrong.
Instead, a sabbatical year was a year of great activity; old granaries were repaired and new ones were built. Failing enterprises and initiatives were put to rest and new and promising ones were finally launched; A year in which strategic plans that had been in the preparation stages were implemented.
Sabbatical was like the Shabbat; a time to focus on and work towards greater holiness; A year of sacred action and also a year to focus on the sacred relationships between community members and to expand our circle to embrace new souls.
In some ways, the coming year is our sabbatical year. I turn to a passage from Talmud, masechet Shevuot that says… (Mas. Shevu’oth 39a): “Kol Yisrael areivim zeh b’zeh.” – All Israel are responsible for one another. It is in a discussion of who is guilty and who blameless, who has responsibility for whom. And the conclusion of the rabbis is that we all are responsible for each other.
In a midrash, “A man in a boat began to bore a hole under his seat. His fellow passengers protested. ‘What concern is it of yours?’ he responded, ‘I am making a hole under my seat, not yours.’ They replied, ‘That is so, but when the water enters and the boat sinks, we too will drown.’” (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Leviticus Rabbah 4:6)
The whole communal enterprise of our synagogue is like a great ship. We traverse the great expanse, finding our way together. There are storms and there are beautiful ocean sunsets. We are men and women of many places who desire to build for ourselves a sacred community in which we can perform mitzvot – form special bonds with others and with God. We can fashion a place of refuge for one another against life’s storms and we can move towards mutual goals of faith, family, and fellowship. Every individual matters and no individual is intrinsically more valuable than any other.
One could just think of the boat as a mode of transportation, a “means to an end;” a way to bar-mitzvah a child, a way to gain the approval of parents, etc.; but one would be missing the much larger and more profound message.
We are all in the same boat…..NO, we ARE the boat. Kol areivim ze b’zeh. We are each responsible for one another. According to Rabbi Bunim of P’shiskha, everyone should have two pockets, each containing a slip of paper. On one should be written: ‘I am but dust and ashes’, and on the other: ‘The world was created for me’. From time to time we must reach into one pocket, or the other. The two sayings give us a balanced perspective on our role in the community.
What does the metaphor of the boat teach us about the nature of living as part of a community?
The key to this text is to understand the word areiv. In legal terms, it means a guarantor: one who guarantees an obligation and has a legal duty to fulfill it. Simply by virtue of being part of the this community, I am responsible for you and you are responsible for me. I promise to take care of you and you promise to take care of me.
Another meaning of areiv is being mixed up or bound together with something. That is, members of a Jewish community (whether Jewish or married to or related to someone Jewish) are bound together not just legally but emotionally, historically, and culturally. We are all part of the same unfolding community story.
Living as part of the community can necessitate giving up individual freedom. Our independence extends only to the extent that it does not compromise the welfare of the group.
In Parashat Nitzavim of the Torah it says: Atem nitzavim hayom. “You are standing here today, each one of you, from the elders of the community to the drawers of water…” It is saying that everyone has an equal right to Torah and to a community. We each have an equal right to and perhaps even more importantly we each have a responsibility to the Torah and to this community.
For those who are interested…..
http://rac.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1825&pge_prg_id=15880&pge_id=2415
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