Thursday, October 1, 2009

This I Believe.. and You?

The firm faith in and admission of acknowledged truths will best promote a correct course of life; for by being impressed with holy feelings we will be best able to withstand temptations and the inclination to sin inherent in man.
Isaac Leeser, Catechism for Jewish Children (1839)

Almost four months ago, I began my year in the fourth cohort of Synagogue Transformation and Renewal (STAR)’s Good to Great program. The program means to take rabbis who have finished ten years in congregations and help them through a process of self-reflection, peer encouragement, and revitalization of their rabbinates. It consists of two retreats – one at the beginning of the program and one, at the end, a year later. The program is directed by Rabbi Terry Bookman and Dr. Bill Kahn, two brothers-in-law, one a congregational rabbi, the other a professor of Organizational Behavior. Realizing (over several years’ discussion at Thanksgiving) that rabbis received little training in how to work inside of organizations, the formed Eitzah – A Center for Congregational Leadership – to bring the cutting edge tools of organizational theory, with a Jewish spin, to congregations. Looking at the “Good to Great” model, my cohort was told that great rabbis dream big dreams.

As I said in my High HolyDay sermons, as part of that process, I started to think about why we all think we are here – members of Temple Sholom at this time in our lives. I wondered if there were core things that all of us could agree on. I imagined that we might create a creed – a statement of our belief – that we could stand up and say together to reinforce our community and clarify our path together. As part of that process, I engaged in a study of the idea of creed in Reform Judaism and tracked my journey on a blog. As part of my final High HolyDay sermon on Yom Kippur, I asked everyone present to contribute something that they believe – either with their name or anonymously – for posting on the site. My hope is to help everyone learn about what a creed might be and what a shared creed for our congregation might look like. (As I write this column, it is not yet Yom Kippur, so I can only hope that many of responded.) Please, go to the website, read the articles and links, and make comments and suggestions so this study can go on together.

Finally, I quoted above from Isaac Leeser, one of the first Jewish educators in the United States. He created a catechism – a curriculum of religious doctrines for the instruction of children or converts – and argued very strongly for a creed. As he stated above, a commonly agreed upon standard that can be remembered at need and referred to when facing a moral dilemma can only lead to living a more moral and purposeful life. We would do better in almost any situation if we could easily articulate that which we believe – be it how we treat our fellow human beings, our ideals for the world we live in, what we find valuable, or what our purpose is in life. So often, we meander from choice to choice and can only define what we believe when we look back at what we have done. Join me in taking time to define who we are – and who we want to be – by what we believe in.

Rabbi Joel N. Abraham

The discussion of a Reform creed can be found at www.reformcreed.blogspot.com. My High HolyDay sermons can be found at sholomravsermons.blogspot.com.