by Rabbi Michael Berk
Standing here for the ninth consecutive annual meeting of this congregation, my heart is full. I stand here wanting to thank every member for the opportunity you’ve given me to be part of this historic congregation. Every year my love and appreciation for our community grows. We are so richly blessed. Aliza joins me in extending hands and hearts to you in love, and thank you for welcoming us and allowing us to make this our home.
It’s not easy being clergy of a large congregation like this. But let me tell you something about your clergy. The impulse of your rabbis is to spend all our time getting to know you, being there when you need us, celebrating and learning and praying with you. I know the hectic business of a large urban congregation may sometimes make the clergy seem remote; there are meetings and emails and committees and so many things that tug at us every day; and sometimes we don’t get the balance right. But, we’ve heard over and again how our members want to connect with the rabbis more deeply. The feeling is very mutual. I know that sometimes opportunities are missed. A call is made a little late. Something, sometimes a name, God forbid, is forgotten. Please know that in our hearts there is love and care for every soul in this congregation. I pledge that your rabbis will redouble their efforts to connect with you and get to know you better.
I think that the most important idea for all of us to get into our heads is that Beth Israel unites us as agudah echat; a unified community of people who care about one another.
Beth Israel is a Beit K’nessit, which means the house for the assembly of the people. Even the word synagogue, which is not a Hebrew word but a Greek word, comes from the root which means “to bring together.”
So, the purpose of Beth Israel is to bring us all together; and Martin Buber was right when he observed “All real life is meeting.” So tonight let us reconfirm this vision for our community and think how we will go together on our journey as a community to continue fashioning Beth Israel as a home away from home, a community of communities, a place that compels us, that connects us to one another, that adds richness, texture, love, caring, to our lives – the kinds of things that come from being truly a part of a sacred community.
During the last several years, one of the most important projects we’ve embarked upon is the development of our Caring Community efforts. We have continued to keep this as a pillar of our strategic planning in order to build a stronger community for which chesed, kindness, and mitzvah, became more central in the lives of our members, helping people through life’s toughest moments, and making caring a central part of the culture of this congregation. I would love for people to think of Beth Israel as the Caring Congregation.
To achieve that vision we need to develop a culture that acknowledges and engages our members at every stage of their lives and offer compassion, support, and acts of loving kindness to individuals during times of need; to harness the energy of hundreds of caring volunteers; to ensure that the needs of congregants are known and met by a combination of staff, volunteers and members with whom they are already connected.
We have come far in these efforts, but there is so much more to do. We are so grateful to Bethany Ratner, who has with me staffed our caring community projects and she has done so with passion and devotion. Susan Levy and Elizabeth Siegler, building on the work of those who came before them, have taken the programs and plans to a higher level and we are grateful for all their work. I am happy to say that Susan Levy, a physician, will continue her work with our caring community and Sharon Goodman is soon to join Elizabeth as a co-chair for the committee. We welcome Sharon and look forward to the year ahead as we expand our good works.
Our community is well poised to meet the challenges we perceive ahead of us in the years ahead. Your clergy, staff, and lay leaders want this to be YOUR synagogue and we are seeking always to find new ways to make it that way. In order for us to be successful, we can’t do it without you.
To emphasize the importance of this vision and that this synagogue is all about YOU, let me make a radical statement: in the Torah, God’s intention is not to create a religion. It was to create a people; a community. How do I know this? Let me share with you an obscure but wonderful Midrash that takes place when Moses is on Mt. Sinai and the people below are dancing around the golden calf.
And the Eternal spoke to Moses, “Go, get yourself down.” What is meant by Go, get down? R. Eleazar said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Moses, descend from your greatness. Have I at all given to you greatness except for the sake of Israel? And now Israel have sinned; then why do I want you?
What was going on when God said Go down? Something more dramatic than what the Torah describes was going on. God had been waiting since the beginning of time to give Torah to somebody. But God doesn’t give Torah in Genesis. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob don’t get the Torah. Torah starts here, at Sinai, when God is about to give Torah to Moses. When God sends Moses away, God is overturning a divine plan in place since the creation of the world. How do we understand this?
When God said, “Go down” the rabbis add: descend from your greatness… In other words, Why do I want you? You only have greatness because of this people. Get down from YOUR greatness. In Judaism – there is no “your greatness.” There’s only a community. Moses, you don’t interest me. Now, you and I know that the Bible says God is very interested in Moses. But the rabbis want to point out that God’s goal was a people. It’s not about one man on a mountain communing with God. Judaism is not about an elite on the high ground. God is saying to Moses, “I don’t want to be god of the elite; I want a people.”
Judaism at core is a way of life in which the people has to be fully invested and participatory. If there’s no people, there’s no Judaism.
Elie Weisel has taught that to be part of a community, to shape it and strengthen it, is the most urgent, the most vital obligation facing the Jewish individual. We are blessed that there is a community, a staff, and lay leadership that rises to Weisel’s challenge here at Beth Israel. We need every member to assume part of that burden as well. As we look to the next year, we are committed to developing further our goal of shaping this community into a truly caring community that has multiple opportunities for people to connect meaningfully and become engaged, because it all depends on you.
My friend Janet Marder has a daughter named Rachel. Once, when Rachel was little, they were sitting around the kitchen table and Rachel was chomping on recently collected Halloween candy. Her mother cautioned her not to each too much. “Remember,” she said, “your body is a temple.” Rachel replied without missing a beat: “My body isn’t a temple; it’s a schul.”
A temple is beautiful and majestic. A temple like ours is awe inspiring. A schul is a warm and loving community home. A schul is its people; the beautiful people who gather there to pray and celebrate their lives together.
We thank the founders for their vision and commitment and for this awesome place they bequeathed to us. At Beth Israel we are grateful for the beautiful temple we have. But it’s you – the schul, that we love.