Rabbi Howard Morrison

How does a synagogue service do it? How can 900 families? Some 2000 individuals on the High Holy Days? Some 100-200 people on a Shabbat morning, do it? How can we feel as a community on the one hand, and where individual spiritual needs are met on the other hand?

This past July, I attended a four-day seminar by Yeshivat Hadar in New York entitled, "Beyond Gathering: Building communities of depth and dignity." The opening night lecture was entitled, "Independence and interdependence: When do we need to stay together and when do we need to strike out on our own? 

In the Torah, God reveals the commandments to the people of Israel in a gathering, a public community. But now listen to this radical statement offered by the medieval sage, Maimonides: "If a Jewish person lives in a place where there are bad attitudes and bad leaders, he needs to go from place to place and country to country until he comes to a place of Torah, proper attitudes, and good leaders. There he should settle himself. And if he does not find any place that will benefit him, he needs to seclude himself in deserts and forests so that he can escape from bad attitudes and people who do evil." This single statement does not bode well for synagogues to be sure. 

Now comes a teaching from an 18^th century scholar known as the Maor Va'Shemesh. He writes, "To achieve a higher holiness, this will only happen if he attaches himself to the notable people, those who truly serve God. . . . The crux of the Mitzvot is that everything should be in a collective, joining together with those who seek God. . . . And in proportion to the increased people who gather does higher holiness of God rest upon them." The same commentator goes on to say that God will not see the one who separates himself from everyone else. By hiding from people, one hides from God. For the one who struggles to find his/her individuality in the presence of others, he suggests, one should be physically present with the community at large but envision him/herself being alone by focusing on God and personal spiritual thoughts.

It is clearly a challenge for one to feel fully independent on the one hand and interdependent on community at the very same time. Perhaps this explains why the Talmud teaches that there should be at least a four-cubit space between one worshipper and the next in shul, as to create some privacy and intimacy within the context of a thousand people. Perhaps this explains why the Talmud teaches that one should enunciate his/her prayers and thoughts in a whisper so that the individual hears his/her words but not to disturb the person next to him/her.

This new year, after a year-long search, done in a way never done before, we have brought to Beth Emeth our new Chazzan, Noah Rachels. We welcome him, his wife Amy, and their daughter Maya to our community family. No pressure - But we expect you to enrich and heighten our spiritual experience in shul as a unified community, and where each individual feels enhanced. 

Frankly, I do not understand what it means to run away from a place where there are bad leaders and bad attitudes. What place is perfect in the world of human beings? If I, a good and decent person, leave, am I not leaving that community in a worse place than before? Does not every person at times exhibit bad attitudes and bad forms of leadership? Are these not reasons why we desperately need to be in community?

It is interesting to note that the word "Tzibbur" stands for Tzadikim, Bainoniim, Reshaim - Righteous, ordinary . and wicked." A community is all-encompassing. 

A Chazzan is also called Shaliach Tzibbur, one who has to advocate for the entirety of our community. 

There is a universal expression which says that a stick alone is breakable, but a bundle of sticks is unbreakable. We need each other in order to be as strong as possible. 

The famous 20^th century rabbi, Mordecai Kaplan, spoke of the three B's in Judaism - Belonging, Behaving, and Believing. All three values form an integral three-legged stool in Judaism. I would suggest, however, in the aftermath of October 7^th and in the surge of anti-Semitism that belonging is the most important concept in Judaism these days. Somehow those issues that have divided Jews among ourselves on matters of behavior and belief seem less important when we the Jewish people feel so alone in the world.

In her poem, "Amidah: On our feet we speak to You," Marge Piercy writes:

"We rise to speak

a web of bodies aligned like notes of music . . . 

Yet You have taught us to push against the walls,

to reach out and pull each other along,

to strive to find the way through 

if there is no way around, to go on.

We will try to be holy,

We will try to repair the world given us to hand on.

Precious is this treasure of words and knowledge and deeds that moves inside us,

Holy is the hand that works for peace and justice,

Holy is the mouth that speaks for goodness,

Holy is the foot that walks toward mercy.

Let us lift each other on our shoulders and carry each other along.

Let holiness move in us.

Let us pay attention to its small voice.

Let us see the light in others and honor that light."

I wish us all a year of health, meaning and purpose.

Shana Tova U'Metuka,

Rabbi Howard Morrison