Saturday, October 1, 2016

Ask, Then Do - October 2016

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

These are perhaps the most well-known and oft-repeated words by President Kennedy, or of any American president’s inaugural speech.  The new president was urging Americans - and the world - to recognize the miraculous age in which they lived: an age in which the evils of poverty and starvation could be eliminated, and all peoples could live in freedom.  The wish was not naive.  President Kennedy was speaking in the backdrop of the Cold War - a world where the most powerful and richest of nations were divided into two oppositional groups, spending their resources in combatting each other, rather than aiding their own people or the rest of the world.  John F. Kennedy’s legacy is mixed - along with the idealistic Peace Corps, there was the brinksmanship of the Cuban missile crisis.  We reached for the moon, but we also crept closer to Viet Nam.  Yet, today, as we look back toward an idealistic age, we wish for a time when we could still be inspired by a larger, communal vision.

As I enter my eighteenth year here at Temple Sholom, one of the things that I been most proud of is how we have transformed ourselves into a “Congregation of Learners” - not that we all are taking opportunities to learn more about our Judaism (which would be nice), but that we reflect on our congregational experience and are not afraid to change in order to do better what we seek to do.  Over the past two decades, we have become a singing congregation, a congregation more focussed on its community than its exterior surroundings; a green congregation; a welcoming congregation; an educationally innovative congregation; and, in the coming year, we seek to transform ourselves into a community of choice and commitment.  We recognize (like every airline host says) you have a choice to belong to the Temple Sholom community or not - and that the amount of money that you give us should be the least factor in making that affiliation.  What is more important is that we are a comfortable place for you to worship; people that you know who will comfort you in sorrow and celebrate with you in joy; a companion in the work you do to make the world a better place; a partner in learning and teaching your family to deepen your Jewish practice; and a place to be rejuvenated and see the world anew.  Your commitment to that community is not solely financial, but is the time that  you spend in nurturing our community - whether by putting up the Sukkah, sending a card to someone who is ill, planning a fundraiser, or even showing a guest where to find the water fountain.

You will hear more about how we as a community will work to build choice and commitment over the next year - from your Trustees, officers, and other congregants like you.  At this moment, however, I want to remind us all of a collective responsibility we have to the world outside our walls - and that is to participate in our democracy.  We have talked over the last several months about having, rather than avoiding, political conversations.  We would be well-served by listening to another section of JFK’s inaugural cited above:

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belabouring those problems which divide us....
Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.
Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah — to "undo the heavy burdens -. and to let the oppressed go free."
Having engaged in the discussions, we now need to exercise our responsibility to vote.  
If your voter registration is not current, you have until October 18th to register (http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/voting-information.html)
If you’re registered, but will not be able to visit your poling place on Tuesday, November 8th, you have until seven days before the election (November 1, 2016) to mail in a request for a ballot http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/voting-information-vote-by-mail.html
or 3pm the day before (November 7, 2016) to pick one up in person.
In the New Year of 5777, let us build that ideal world together.  L’shanah tovah.

Rabbi Abraham