“But, Holy Blossom is such a large place …” In Perspective by Rabbi John Moscowitz
I’m not so sure. Yes, it’s large when you know no one (as most places seem overwhelming when almost all faces are strange). And the synagogue looms large if you enter its doors only infrequently (and others seem to be more at home, know more people, etc). But much of the time, Holy Blossom Temple has the feel of a surprisingly small, occasionally even an intimate, synagogue.
The reasons are as varied and idiosyncratic as are individual lives. Sometimes a child’s experiences brings in parents. Sometimes a search for knowledge proves nourishing and never exhaustible or exhausting. Sometimes a time-bound Kaddish for a loved one turns into ongoing prayer with one’s people … and more.
… ultimately, there is one underlying factor common to all who walk through these doors unselfconsciously: a desire to be a Jew in a community, a wish to find meaning in a Jewish context …
Reasons are varied Am I out of touch — or close to the truth? Consider the experience of those who are here often, those who come to pray and to gather; who come to study and learn; who come to plan and to do, to create and to contribute. Those who are much at home at synagogue — but who once were not at all. Are they different from the rest? I don’t think so. But, for one reason or another, they find themselves here. Why?
But, ultimately, there is one underlying factor common to all who walk through these doors unselfconsciously: a desire to be a Jew in a community, a wish to find meaning in a Jewish context and to be lifted up by the religious rather than levelled by the secular — and to do all of this with other Jews. And those who come with regularity — the doers, the learners, the curious, the God-seekers, the children, the new to
January 2006
3
Tevet/Shevat 5766
Judaism, the ones who have one niche and several — seem to find that an apparently large place is a rather small community; small and sustaining because they have made it so for themselves and their families.
At home in the community But community does not end here. The task of the comfortable is to help make the less comfortable at home in this community — to reach out and draw in those who may want in, but aren’t sure how to achieve it. And the challenge of those not yet comfortable is not to be shy, but to respond, proper welcome or not, and enter a community that needs them every bit as much as those already here. And then the ultimate irony is clear: the more Jews come more often, the richer the experience, the deeper the Judaism, the smaller the place. Therefore, the invitation below for our new members: not just to join us on Sat. Feb. 4, 2006, but to join this synagogue community in a deeper way. We need you — we need you as Jews, we need your talents and we need your fresh eyes. We need you to make us better at being the best community we can possibly be.