Rise, O Dry Bones

Hinavei al ha’atzamot, ha’eileh v’amarta aleihem: ha’atzamot  hiveishot shimu d’var Adonai
Speak prophecy to the bones, saying, “Dry bones, hear the word of Adonai.” Ezekiel 37:4

Traveling with the Confirmation Class last month, we continued our twelve-year old custom of spending erev Shabbat with our sister congregation, Szim Salom, in Budapest.  Rabbi Kati Kelemen used the occasion to speak about the prophetic text cited above from Ezekiel, the allegory of the dry bones.  In the text, God brings Ezekiel to a valley full of skeletons and asks him if they can live again.  Ezekiel, wisely, answers that only God knew.  God commands Ezekiel to speak words of prophecy to the bones, which are then covered with flesh and rise alive.  The prophet Ezekiel employs this metaphor to show how listening to the word of God can revive the scattered and decimated people of Israel after the Exile.  Rabbi Kelemen used Ezekiel’s metaphor to talk about the resurgence of Judaism after the Holocaust - an important lesson to our students who, after their week of seeing the vibrant pre-Holocaust culture and the witness to the Holocaust, needed to see that Judaism was still alive and growing in Central and Eastern Europe.

After the service, when I got a chance to speak, I then compared Rabbi Kelemen to Ezekiel, remarking how, over the decade, we had watched Szim Salom move from a small apartment, to temporary quarters, to a restaurant, to the large apartment they moved into this past year. I also noted how inspiring it was to have a youth group at Szim Salom  large enough speak almost one on one to our ten Confirmation students led by young leadership that we had had a chance to host at our congregation.  Truly, under the leadership of Rabbi Kelemen, the dry  bones of Progressive Judaism have arisen in Hungary and have become alive.

A miracle - for dry bones to be re-animated and come alive.  A miracle - for Judaism not only to survive in post-Holocaust Europe, but to renew itself and create new rabbis and young leadership.  But why do we always have to focus on the most miraculous events?  There is a small miracle in the healing of the wounded, even in the rising up of those who are tired.

We at Temple Sholom are in the midst of such a small miracle.  A congregation of nearly 100 years, we were perhaps complacent with who and where we were.  Asking ourselves for words of prophecy, we set as a goal becoming a thriving congregation.  Ten years later, we are on the road to a new building in a new town; we have an innovative and grant-winning education program, a Temple activity almost every weekend (and sometimes two or three), young families  joining, older families becoming benefactor members - we are clothing ourselves with new skin and reviving ourselves.

Ten years ago, the members of this congregation made a leap of faith.  At the moment, we are still mid-leap, but...  our toes are reaching for the other side, and we have almost landed.  Our goal is within our grasp.  Let us re-dedicate ourselves to taking that last stride - and then imagining where our next leap may take us.