Shepping some naches....

Resh Lakish said: Scripture tells us that if you teach Torah to another’s child, it is as if you helped in their creation. Rav Eleazar said: As though you had created the words of the Torah. Raba said: As though you had created yourself.

Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 99b

This past month, I had the great honor of traveling to Oak Park, Michigan to install our former student Cantor, Darcie Naomi Sharlein. As you may know, after Darcie was invested as a Cantor last May, she became eligible to seek full-time employment as a Cantor in the Reform movement. After a number of interviews, she and Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park agreed that they were a match. Since July, Darcie and Jeff have been living nearby and Cantor Sharlein has been settling in to her new pulpit. Over the summer, she called me and asked if I would install her this fall. I was honored to be asked and flew in especially for the installation service on Shabbat Chayyei Sarah 5768 – November 21-22, 2008.

Installation is a strange ritual that we sometimes celebrate among Jewish clergy. In many non-Jewish houses of worship, clergy are either ordained in a ministry or called to a particular church. In Judaism, we take a moment (usually some time after the clergy has begun working) to celebrate and to officially mark the connection between clergy and congregation. Almost ten years ago, my father, Rabbi Michael L. Abraham, flew in from New Zealand for my installation. (It was a busy week – Avital was born on Thursday and our student Cantor at the time – Wendy Shermet – had laryngitis.) I was honored that of all the Rabbis and Cantors with whom Darcie had worked, she chose me for her installation.

After a very nice Temple dinner (with over 100 people in attendance) and a lovely service (complete with adult and children’s choir), I stood in a reception line with Cantor Sharlein and Rabbi Joseph Klein (her new Rabbi, not her father-in-law). Each and every one of the over 200 congregants and community members who attended the service made it a point to come through the line and to thank me. At first, I was tempted to move to Michigan and deliver all of my sermons at Temple Emanu-El – I have never received such praise. Soon, however, I realized that they were not thanking me for speaking, or even for coming out to participate, but for “giving them” Cantor Sharlein.

At first, I did take care to point out that Darcie had quite a bit of talent and knowledge before she got to Temple Sholom and that we had only served to provide her an opportunity to polish up – to experiment and improve her skills. Then, I remembered the quote from Sanhedrin above and realized that all of us at Temple Sholom deserve at least a small part of credit in “creating” Cantor Sharlein. Of course, a lot of the credit goes to Ron and Lanie Shapiro (who were also there and send their love) as well as to the faculty and students of Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion’s School of Sacred Music. Her husband Jeff played no small part and the lion’s share of the work was done by Darcie herself.

However, we at Temple Sholom should remember to take great pride in the work that we do in training student Cantors. In the last ten years alone, we have had a large part in providing Cantor Wendy Shermet for Temple Israel in Omaha, Nebraska, Cantor Shira Nafshi for Congregation B’nai Or in Morristown, New Jersey, as well as a smaller part in preparing Cantor Hayley Kobilinsky for Congregation B’nai Yisrael in Armonk, New York. On behalf of Temple Sholom, I am often thanked by the Rabbis of these congregations for our role in the creation of their Cantors. We are justly regarded by the HUC-JIR community as one of the better places to intern as a student Cantor.

This year, we continue the tradition. We have welcomed a wonderful new student Cantor, Vicky Glikin, and her whole family into our congregation. Let us hope that we will continue our mutually beneficial relationship together until we, reluctantly but with great pride, are ready to send our latest co-creation into the world.

Rabbi Joel N. Abraham

(If you are interested in seeing pictures, or want to read what I said at the installation, follow the links on my blog – sholomrav.blogspot.com.)

God Says, "Vote!"

If you take up the burden of the Torah, the burdens of government and of worldly concerns are removed. If you lay down the burden of the Torah, you get back the burdens of government and of worldly concerns. Rabbi Nehunia ben Hakkanah Pirke Avot 3:5

Like many things in the Jewish world, the idea of government has had positives and negatives. On the one hand, as an oppressed minority during much of our history, Jews often saw the government as the source of that oppression. On the other hand, the government was also a limit to that oppression, or at least a societal check on individual attacks. In addition, Judaism has long recognized that governments are necessary to do the tasks that individuals cannot tackle alone. There is a portion in the Talmud, in tractate Sanhedrin, which talks about what is necessary for a city to be called a city – there must be enough people to have teachers and a school, various community charitable organizations, in addition to the number of people needed to make a minyan or a Rabbi or a judge. Government is both a necessary evil and an expression of our greatest desires and needs. How then to explain the quote above - about the burden of Torah vs. the burden of the government?

The Rabbis of the Talmud believed that study of Torah was to be desired above all else. Therefore, its reward had to be stressed as worth the trouble. An individual might worry how they could pay their bills, or even their taxes, if they engaged in such a pursuit as Torah study, which had so little material reward. To that end, there are many stories in which Rabbis, perhaps poor to start, are rewarded in sometimes miraculous ways. One of those rewards, according to Rabbi Nehunia ben Hakkanah, is that the government will stay off your back.

To the modern Reform Jew, not surprisingly, there is another way to read these words. Government is a burden only in when it does not work correctly or we do not understand its purpose. Not to dip my feet into the electoral process, I would however say that my understanding of Judaism says that paying taxes is patriotic; that one of the ways that we support our country and the work that we ask it to do is financial. The frustration comes when we believe that money is used inefficiently, misspent, or used for purposes to which we object. The advantage for us is that we live in a democracy – that we are given the opportunity, on a regular basis, to register our approval or disapproval of the political process through the ballot box.

That government is a burden is removed from us when the government is working in the way that we expect and need; the way that our Torah tells us we should relate to each other. When the government helps us to provide for the widow and orphan – the powerless; when it helps us to treat the stranger as the citizen; when it helps us to pursue justice; to respect the rights of even our enemies. In a democracy, we have no one to blame for what our government does in our name, except ourselves. As Reform Jews, we are expected to act in the prophetic tradition and make our world a better place.

It is not a joke to say that one of the most important rituals of Reform Judaism is exercised at the ballot box. Take this Jewish mitzvah seriously. Weigh your choices, but make them. And, if you wish, say a prayer based on Deuteronomy before you enter the booth – Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, shenatan lanu hachayyim v’hamavet, habracha v’haklalah vtzivanu livchor chayyim. Blessed are You, Adonai, our God, Ruler of the universe, who put before us life and death, blessing and curse and commanded us to choose life.

Choose. Vote.

Rabbi Abraham

Strangers are only members you haven't met yet

K’ezrach mikem yih’yeh lachem hageir hagar itchem v’ahavta lo kamocha ki geirim ha’yitem b’eretz mitzrayim. Ani Adonai Eloheicheim
As the native born shall they be to you – the stranger who lives with you. And you shall love them as yourself, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am Adonai, your God. Leviticus 19:34

The time has come for us, as a congregation, to live up to the high ideals that we have set for ourselves. We pride ourselves on being a haimische congregation – a community where people feel welcome, where individuals are connected to each other more than through the coincidence that they may have children of the same age. In a very important way, we have fulfilled this goal. We have over 30 families who have chosen to join the congregation this year because of who we are and because they want to be a member of this community. That so many of you have spoken to your friends, or even spoken about the Temple so that word has gone around in the community, is a testament to how we feel about the congregation and a credit to each one of us.

However, bringing people in the door is really on the first step. To be a truly haimische congregation, we continue to be welcoming – to bring new members on a journey so that a year from now, they feel as much long-time members as you may now. As Jews, this idea should be second nature to us – as it has been repeated over and over in our most basic text – the Torah. The quote above, from the Holiness Code which we read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, is a good summation. Sometimes, though, we think of the stranger as someone who will always be different, and never one of us. Judaism tells us that we must not only treat the one who is new to our community the same as everyone else, but to make them feel as if they have always been a part – to love them as yourself.

The good news is that we are off to a great start. Already in September, we had several wonderful social (and fundraising) events that have included new and old members:
• Thank you to our fundraising committee – led by Marjorie Wachtel and Nan Fechtner –
o For the great “Scoop for Sholom”, our ice cream fundraiser which people refused to leave, hanging out together on a warm afternoon in Fanwood.
o For the wine-tasting – a record attendance was also marked by the fact that new families were spread out among all the different tables and, as usual, the socializing drowned out the wine.
• Thank you to the Sisterhood –
o For giving new members to the Temple free membership
o For the welcoming brunch which had so many enthusiastic new participants
• Thank you to the Brotherhood –
o For reaching out with such great e-mail to the new members
o For the vodka tasting, Sukkah building, etc., etc.
• Thank you to the Wolff family – Daniel and Ellen
o For hosting a get-together in their home for all the members with young children

And that is not all – our Membership Committee – led by Carolyn Smaka and Seth Weingarten met last month not only to talk about membership recruitment, but retention – how they can help committees bring in new members, the Trustees stay in touch, and generally to make our new members from strangers into ourselves.

Finally, what can each of us do? The first thing is to get over the potential embarrassment of introducing yourself to someone you may have met before. Then, at any Temple gathering – go up and say hello to people whose name you don’t remember. If you are a committee chair or member, drag someone else (especially a newer member) to a meeting, an event, or even to help set up. Sit next to someone different at services or at a dinner or Temple event.

Do the work it takes to make the stranger feel like the native – love your neighbor as yourself.

Rabbi Abraham