Don't Let the Light Go Out - February/March 2020 - Creation Day 4

God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times - the days and the years; and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.: and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to dominate the day and the lesser light to dominate the night, and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth, to dominate the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that this was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. [Gen.1:14-19, New JPS Tanakh].

When asked to list what is created on each day of creation, the fourth day is the one that stumps most people. After all, light is created on the first day, so how is it that the things which create (or, to be completely accurate - create or reflect) light - the sun, moon, and stars - are not created until day four?  Our scientific understanding seems to rebel against this idea - there cannot be light without sources.  Yet, those who try to squish the Biblical story into our latest cosmological theories posit that the creation of light is the big bang, and only later does matter coalesce into stars, planets, satellites, etc.  As we have seen in the whole story of creation, sometimes order can emerge - bit by bit - from chaos.

In our synagogue innovation, we often travel along the same path.  Many times, an innovation that has become a signature of our Temple Sholom community - the trimester/family track program, sunset kabbalat shabbat, that our Hebrew School goal is to help our students become “leaders of meaningful (Reform) Jewish worship”, and others - come from the sudden burst of a great idea or revelation, that then takes time to coalesce into the reality that becomes the change in our community.  Contrary to the universe, however, there are many more big bangs then there are suns, moons, and planets in our congregational stellar system.  That happens for many reasons. Sometimes brilliant ideas do not seem so brilliant upon reflection. Many times, the ideas are beyond the resources of our congregation - whether that resource be staff time, program space, or funds.  Too many times what keeps those possible new stars from forming is not the lack of substance, but our inability to bring together the right group of congregants to bring that idea into our firmament.

When congregants join our congregation, we still ask in what areas they are interested in engaging.  In our old model, we would forward names to committee chairs, who would reach out and invite new members to committee meetings. In our new governance model, we have less standing committees and more limited time task forces to accomplish programs and tasks.  The lack of regular structure does not lend itself toward the regular influx of new members.  Sometimes that means new congregants fail to ignite, and our programs sputter for lack of fuel.

We need to commit from both sides - from current leadership and from engaged congregants.  Leadership needs to find ways to better reach out for new involvement, and congregants need to not only be open and looking for such opportunities, but ready to jump when the opportunity arises.  People often say that they come to join our congregation because of what they have heard - because of the light that we give from afar.  Once they are a part of the community, we often fail to discern the general glow from all the orbs that radiate and reflect.  Our job is to help make a little order out of that chaos; to keep the light glowing by each of us choosing a flame or two to tend.

Send an e-mail or call the office - let us know where you would like to help. We will try to do our part to help structure that energy into the light that warms and nurtures us all.