Creating a Sacred Congregation
Rabbi Tom Samuels
“You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God: your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer, to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 29: 9-10)
We are all standing before God. Each and every one of us. Each and every day of our lives. Across the generations, past and future. And in each generation, teaches Rabbi Donnie Hartman, in each expression of the Torah, we must ask ourselves: What do we do with this heritage? This wisdom? This pedagogy for pursing a life of meaning and of purpose? How will we use it to inform our own lives? The lives of our children? Of their children?
A major theme in American religion over the past three decades has been the rise of meaning-seeking on the part of Americans of all faiths. An evolution beyond the paradigm of a function community based on a passive consumer-client relationship (i.e. Jews in the Pews), to that of an actively involved membership of a sacred community.
As such, we are challenged now more than ever to provide environments where meaning-making can happen. To produce experiences and opportunities that can enrich our lives, expand our connection to this world, and that speak to our very souls.
Perhaps this process starts with asking ourselves that core, fundamental, and consequently most difficult question: Why be Jewish? Why remain Jewish? What is our answer that can inspire a life-long commitment to the Jewish People and to Judaism itself? That can help to foster a Jewish life that revives our spirit, rekindles our passion for living, and infuses our lives with joy and with meaning? That satisfies our basic human need to, in the words of Rabbi Jay Michaelson, touch the transcendent in this world? To express our humanity?
The ultimate question then, is, how important is a Jewish future to us? How seriously do we want ourselves, and our children to take Judaism? I leave us all with more questions than answers. After all, this is the Jewish Way.
B’Shalom,
Rabbi Tom
Rabbi Tom Samuels
“You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God: your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer, to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 29: 9-10)
We are all standing before God. Each and every one of us. Each and every day of our lives. Across the generations, past and future. And in each generation, teaches Rabbi Donnie Hartman, in each expression of the Torah, we must ask ourselves: What do we do with this heritage? This wisdom? This pedagogy for pursing a life of meaning and of purpose? How will we use it to inform our own lives? The lives of our children? Of their children?
A major theme in American religion over the past three decades has been the rise of meaning-seeking on the part of Americans of all faiths. An evolution beyond the paradigm of a function community based on a passive consumer-client relationship (i.e. Jews in the Pews), to that of an actively involved membership of a sacred community.
As such, we are challenged now more than ever to provide environments where meaning-making can happen. To produce experiences and opportunities that can enrich our lives, expand our connection to this world, and that speak to our very souls.
Perhaps this process starts with asking ourselves that core, fundamental, and consequently most difficult question: Why be Jewish? Why remain Jewish? What is our answer that can inspire a life-long commitment to the Jewish People and to Judaism itself? That can help to foster a Jewish life that revives our spirit, rekindles our passion for living, and infuses our lives with joy and with meaning? That satisfies our basic human need to, in the words of Rabbi Jay Michaelson, touch the transcendent in this world? To express our humanity?
The ultimate question then, is, how important is a Jewish future to us? How seriously do we want ourselves, and our children to take Judaism? I leave us all with more questions than answers. After all, this is the Jewish Way.
B’Shalom,
Rabbi Tom
