Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Journey to the Secret Mikveh

Last week I journeyed to Israel for my friend Scott’s wedding. Although my trip was short (a mere three days) I was, nonetheless, able to embark on an interesting and rather cool adventure. 

Scott and me during Color War, 2004 at Blue Rill Day Camp
Scott and I met at day camp, spent many years together in NFTY, and have continued our friendship to this day. From college onwards, Scott’s religious practices and beliefs shifted towards orthodoxy eventually leading him towards making aliyah (immigrated to Israel) and identifying as a modern Orthodox Jew. As such, prior to his wedding, Scott spent the day fasting and desired to immerse himself in a mikveh (ritual bath, in order to purify himself before getting married. So, early Tuesday morning, I met Scott at his Jerusalem apartment and we began the day of ritual preparations leading up to the ceremonies and party that evening. Since Scott was fasting, I took on the role of shomer (guard) to make sure he didn’t pass out and was able to make it to the wedding.

Through some of the people Scott studied with at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem, he had heard about a special mikveh at the Western Wall (Kotel) that was reserved just for grooms on the day of their wedding. Our first stop that morning was the Kotel itself to pray shacharit, the morning service. After successfully joining a minyan we then asked around, inquiring as to the location of the mikveh chatanim (grooms’ mikveh). There was, however, a slight problem: no one seemed to know where it was, or even what we were talking about. The mikveh chatanim, as it turns out, is a secret mikveh

The first people that we asked sent us out of the Western Wall plaza, up the stairs back toward the Jewish Quarter and, with typical Israeli directions, told us to go straight, then make a right, then make another right, and it would be there. After following those rather dubious directions we found ourselves in the middle of the Jewish Quarter with no idea of where to go. We then asked a few of the shop keepers and passers by, one of whom was able to direct us to a mikveh, not the grooms mikveh (because no one knew what that was) but a mikveh nonetheless. With more definitive directions, we were able to locate that mikveh only to (thankfully) discover that it was closed for the day.

Now, rather desperate to find Scott a place to immerse himself before the wedding, we tried, once again, to find the grooms’ mikveh. This time, however, we turned to a source more knowledgeable than the men praying at the Kotel, the shop keepers, and the passers by. We turned to “Rav Google.” Scott pulled out his phone, googled “mikveh chatanim" and, wouldn’t you know it, we learned where it was. We had to re-enter the Western Wall plaza and find the offices of the Western Wall rabbi. 

Tunnel Corridor at the Kotel
This, too, proved challenging as there were no signs pointing us in the right direction. Finally, we were able to find a nice woman, originally from America, who was working as an information agent for the Western Wall tunnels. Not only did she know what we were talking about and not only was she able to direct us to the mikveh chatanim, she also asked us a surprising question in return; “Are you looking for the legal or the illegal mikveh?” Unbeknownst to us, archaeologists had discovered an ancient mikveh in the Western Wall tunnels that had naturally re-filled itself with water and many people had been using it illegally. (This woman graciously offered to show us this mikveh after Scott immersed himself in the legal mikveh, but she was no where to be seen when we were done.) 


Sign and Gate to
the Kotel Offices

Confirming that we were, indeed, looking for the legal mikveh, she sent us into a tunnel corridor, through a gate, and up the winding stairs to the offices of the Western Wall rabbi. 








Scott Retrieving the Key






After ascending the stairs, we entered one office where, without Scott even saying a word, all the men there wished him Mazel Tov, obviously knowing why he had entered what I would label as an otherwise exclusive inner sanctum. Scott went to the back of the office and retrieved the secret key. 





And so, key in hand, 




we ascended another flight of stairs, 



walked down another hallway, 




and turned to enter a very small bathroom. 



On the right hand wall of the bathroom, just as we entered, was a big, frosted-glass door 




and beyond the door, finally, was the mikveh chatanim. 



Scott was able immerse himself in the cold mikveh waters and our crazy, roundabout journey to the secret mikveh was complete.

Those who know my religious practices and viewpoints will know that immersing mikveh is not really my thing. Before my wedding, I never thought about going to the mikveh (I went for a massage instead). Also, I have very mixed feelings about the administration of the Kotel, as I am in full support of the efforts to bring equality and an egalitarian section to the Western Wall plaza. In fact, when we were making our way to the offices, I joked with Scott that we probably shouldn’t let them know that I was a Reform Rabbi and a supporter of Women of the Wall. 

Given those feelings, this experience was actually pretty amazing. I was able to venture into a part of the Old City that I would have never imagined and, likely, will not have occasion to visit again. I was able to be part of a relatively small group of people who not only know of, but also have seen, the secret mikveh chatanim

Most of all, this adventure was ever the more special because I was able to share it with one of my best friends, someone I have known for over twenty years, and someone who, because we are both only children, I consider a brother. Our journey to the secret mikveh is one that I will remember and cherish all of my life.


Mazel Tov Scott & Batya!

Friday, October 4, 2013

"A New Spiritual Search:" Rosh Hashanah Evening, 2013/5774


The following is one of three sermons I delivered on the High Holidays (2013/5774). This "sermon trilogy" was delivered before the joint services including the Reform congregation I serve as rabbi, The Jewish Congregation of Kinnelon (JCK), and the Conservative congregation with whom we co-own the synagogue building, Congregation Beth Shalom (CBS). More information about the partnership between JCK and CBS can be found here.


"A New Spiritual Search"


If you have called my cell phone and I was not able to respond, odds are that you have heard the following message: “You’ve reached Rabbi Josh Leighton. Unfortunately I am unable to take your call at the present time. Please leave your name, number, favorite biblical character and a brief message and I will return your call as soon as I am able. Thank you very much, Shalom, and have a great day!” For as long as I can remember, my family and I have been utilizing outgoing messages like this, sneaking in a creative and rather unusual request.
I have been using the current zany question, “favorite biblical character,” ever since I began my Rabbinic studies, and the responses to the question have ranged from the obvious (Moses, Miriam, Joshua), to the comedic (third donkey from the left), and to the profound (God). As a matter of fact, more than one person has answered that God is his/her favorite biblical character. Not only was I taken aback for a few seconds the first time God was left as an answer to my voicemail question, but that response has, in fact, helped form my theology and the way I go about teaching and discussing the various ways that we, as humans and as Jews, think about and believe in the divine.

Our tradition is replete with ancient wisdom. Among them, Proverbs 29:18 teaches: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Clearly, our ancestors knew what many of us know today, it is far easier to achieve your goal when you actually know what that goal is. 
Over the past few years, the Union for Reform Judaism has gathered professional and lay leaders from the various arms of the movement in an effort to create a vision for the entire movement going forward. As of this summer, that Think Tank produced what is meant to be the final proposal of that vision. While the proposed vision statement is a product of, and intended for the Reform Movement, many of the major themes that are expressed in the statement pertain to all of us.
The proposed Vision Statement for the Reform Movement is divided into three over-lapping spheres. And, since I will be delivering three sermons over the course of these High Holy Days, I think you can guess how this is going to work…
Tonight, I would like to share with you the first part of the vision statement, under the heading of “Our Faith.” It reads:

“Reform Judaism maintains faith in the Covenant between God and Israel as expressed over the generations in the teachings of an ever-evolving Torah and tradition. Stirred by the mandate of tikkun olam, Reform Judaism seeks to be the living expression of those teachings. It welcomes all who seek Jewish connection to pursue a life of meaning as inspired by the Divine and proclaimed in the truths grasped by Jewish teachers throughout time.”
The major theme from this excerpt that I wish to focus on is that of “Spirituality.” My colleague Rabbi James Gibson states in the commentary that accompanies the vision statement that the vision welcomes, “those who embrace God, those who struggle in their search and those for whom spirituality is only to be found in sacred human connection.”   
In this case, the vision points us to the goal of fostering increasingly meaningful connections to Jewish tradition by determining the nature of both our personal relationships with God and our individual spiritual searches. 
This leads us to the inescapable question: Why? 

  • Why is it important for us to develop a personal relationship with God? 
  • Why is is necessary to find a spiritual connection in our lives as Jews, even if that connection is with something different from the classical notions of God? 
  • Why do I care and why should you care?
Because, by and large, many Jews sit in the pews, listen, and recite passages that often hold little to no personal meaning. Because, quite frankly, I don’t want coming to services to be a waste of your time. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel observed this trend back in 1953. He wrote:
“[P]eople who are otherwise sensitive, vibrant, arresting, sit there aloof, listless, lazy. … They recite the prayerbook as if it were last week’s newspaper. … Prayer must have life. … It must not be flattened to a ceremony, to an act of mere respect for tradition.” 
                                         (“The Spirit of Jewish Prayer,” 1953)

We all agree with Tevya that we come to temple and do these things because they are, “Tradition, tradition.” Yet, increasingly, “tradition” is not the captivating and mesmerizing force that it used to be. We, clergy and congregant alike, can no longer rely on tradition alone to compel attendance at services, connection with worship, or, for that matter, involvement in Jewish life in general. Rabbi Heschel’s exhortation is the ultimate answer as to why this vision of spirituality is important; it is important because “prayer must have life.”

The clergy can lead prayer, teach, and pose all sorts of provocative questions, but those are effective only when we have willing partners; allies for invigorating meaningful connections to our prayers and traditions. We need you!
Before we can work towards the vision of creating strong relationships with God, before we can raise our spirituality, and before we can build meaningful and engaging worship we must first figure out where we each stand at this point in our lives.
In truth, I would surmise that, generally, we go about our days not really contemplating God all that much. We rarely take the time to evaluate our sense of spirituality. We don’t typically have extended philosophical or theological discussions around the dinner table about the character of God or the nature of God. And when we meet someone new, absent among the first things we inquire about that person are the rather daunting questions: “Do you believe in God?” and “Where are you spiritually.”
For most of us, all we know about God, or what we default to, are the characterizations about God that we find in our liturgy and scripture. In our prayers and in our selections from the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, we are introduced to God as an entity with a persona of caring and compassion, a parental figure, and, of course, the all powerful deity. This will be succinctly summarized tomorrow morning during our Torah service when we hear: 

Adonai, adonai, el rachum vchanun, erech a’payim v’rav chesed v’emet, notzeir chesed l’alafim, noseh avon vafesha v’chata-ah v’nakeh.” “Adonai, Adonai is merciful and gracious, endlessly patient, loving, and true, showing mercy to thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and granting pardon.”

These are all extraordinary character traits, ones we certainly hope for and expect in God, as well as ones we, as humans, aspire to embrace in our own lives. But do these accurately depict the true essence of the divine? Is there some detail about God that exists outside of that character in the Bible? Can we even relate to this passage and others if we don’t believe in God?
Consider the following writings of Martin Buber. On the one hand, Buber teaches that “It is not necessary to know something of God in order really to believe in God; many true believers know how to talk to God but not about God.” Elsewhere he also wrote that “God does not want to be believed in, to be debated and defended by us, but simply to be realized through us.” These seemingly contradictory writings teach the same lesson; that God is ambiguous, intangible, and wholly un-knowable. In keeping with the theme of our eternal struggle with God, Rabbi Leo Baeck taught:

“The Jews have always been a minority. But a minority is compelled to think; that is the blessing of its fate. The conviction of the few is expressed through the energy of constant searching and finding.”

In that spirit, take a moment now. Close your eyes if you’d like. And think about your relationship with God:

  • Do you believe in God? 
  • Do you believe in some divine presence that doesn’t quite fit with the “character” of God? 
  • Are you pretty sure there is some greater force in the universe but you’re hesitant to call it God? 
  • Are you pretty sure that there is no such thing as a god or any divine or supernatural force in the universe? 
  • Do you have a relationship with God?
  • How would you characterize that relationship?
  • Are you even yearning to have a relationship with the Divine?
  • What exactly are you doing when you pray? Why are you doing it?
  • Do you yearn to be connected to something greater?

Let us switch gears and talk about spirituality.  Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman writes1 that Jewish spirituality is a journey very much like “connect the dots.” We are on a journey going from stop to stop looking to complete a greater picture. And we complete this picture by finding places where our individual lives connect with Jewish tradition. Rabbi Hoffman continues by saying that “to be religious is to aspire to a life that is a pilgrimage, not a tour.”


Now take a moment to reflect on your personal sense of spirituality:

  • When do you feel the most spiritual? During what activities? In what locations? With which people?
  • Have you ever felt spiritual?
  • Are you on a personal journey? 
  • If so, what are looking for? Where are you going?
  • How often do you try to reach beyond yourself?
  • What role might God play in your sense of spirituality?
  • How does your Judaism factor into your spiritual self?
And now that we have contemplated where we each are with regard to the divine, and where we each are spiritually, all that we are left with is to figure out how to get from where we are to where we want to be. Even if you have found that you have a solid relationship with God and a strong spiritual sense, there is no limit to those feelings. We can always grow, our connections can always be bolstered and rejuvenated, and there are endless, boundless amounts of meaning that we can find in our tradition.
I have posed a number of questions this evening, and, like a good rabbi I have answered those questions with even more questions. Now I would like to pose one more question, and, actually, provide a few answers.
How? After reflecting on your personal stance regarding God and spirituality, after all that we have discussed, how do you go about strengthening these aspects of your soul. 
Throughout the year we offer a multitude of opportunities to delve deeper and deeper into our tradition, to build connections to our culture and to each other, and to continually discover your personal relationship with something greater than all of us. Every week we hold services right here in this sanctuary. Come by once in a while and immerse yourself in the words and melodies of our prayer. Sporadically, we also offer a number of innovative worship opportunities. Come to one of the JCK family services that morphs into “Hands-Free Shabbat” as we project the words of our prayers onto the big screen. This allows everyone to pray as one, without having our heads buried in our prayerbooks. Or join us for a musical shabbat with guitar led prayers. Or attend one of Rabbi Bockman’s various Lab-Shuls.  Learn more about our prayers, scripture, and other aspects of Judaism in adult ed classes. Learn Hebrew. If we are not offering something that you might be looking for, ask us and we will either begin to offer whatever you’d like, work on it with you, or point you in the right direction for your own personal studies. Become involved in congregational life in some way greater than you already do now. That sense of ownership also translates into meaningful connections.
Pslam 39, verse 4 reads, “While I was musing, the fire was kindled.” I hope that this opportunity for you all to reflect on the questions posed has allowed fires to be kindled in your thoughts and your souls. I hope that my musings and my words throughout this sermon have helped to spark a greater understandings of where each of us is in our lives. And I hope to have ignited your desires to continually build upon those understandings.
We are here for you. I am here for you. Please be a curious and willing partner. Let us heed the advice of our ancient wisdom and work towards achieving our vision. 
Together we will foster meaningful worship, we will build stronger relationships with God, and we will advance our individual spiritual searches. 
The next time you leave a voicemail on my phone, you might just be asked a new zany question about God or spirituality. Think about it. When the time comes...what will your answer be?

1) Hoffman, Lawrence A. “In search of a Spiritual Home.” in Reform Judaism, Fall 1994. Vol. 23, No.1 (p. 32)

"The Community Comes Back:" Rosh Hashanah Day 2, 2013/5774


The following is one of three sermons I delivered on the High Holidays (2013/5774). This "sermon trilogy" was delivered before the joint services including the Reform congregation I serve as rabbi, The Jewish Congregation of Kinnelon (JCK), and the Conservative congregation with whom we co-own the synagogue building, Congregation Beth Shalom (CBS). More information about the partnership between JCK and CBS can be found here.

"The Community Comes Back"

During my years as a Rabbinical Student, I had the honor of serving three wonderful small congregations as their Student Rabbi. My first year as an ordained rabbi, I, again, was privileged to serve another small congregation for the High Holidays. In order, those congregations are located in: Natchez, MS; Sioux Falls, SD; Pine Bluff, AR; and Jefferson City, MO. Clearly, these four congregations are all in relatively small and rather remote places; towns and regions where you wouldn’t expect to find that many Jews, let alone living congregations. And yet, there they are, four, collections of Jews who come together because they are a small minority in parts of our country; they come together because they are Jews. 
I am continually amazed at how these congregations and their membership (some of whom travel upwards of and hour-and-a-half just to attend services) day after day make the active choice to identify as Jews and to join together in their shared heritage. I know that many of the towns where we all live are not bursting with Jews, nevertheless, we are a bit spoiled by the fact that we live in the greater New York area, arguably the second largest and most vibrant concentration of Jews in the world, next to Israel. With all of the resources that have a mere car ride away (and the thousands of resources offered by the internet), we don’t quite feel the same urgent need to actively choose to be Jewish.

If you were here at services on Wednesday evening, the next couple of paragraphs are going to sound rather familiar!

Our tradition is replete with ancient wisdom. Among them, Proverbs 29:18 teaches: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Clearly, our ancestors knew what many of us know today, it is far easier to achieve your goal when you actually know what that goal is. 
As I mentioned on Erev Rosh haShanah, over the past few years, the Union for Reform Judaism has gathered professional and lay leaders from the various arms of the movement in an effort to create a vision for the entire movement going forward. As of this summer, that Think Tank produced its final proposal of that vision. While the proposed vision statement is a product of, and intended for the Reform Movement, many of the major themes that are expressed in the statement pertain to all of us.
The proposed Vision Statement for the Reform Movement is divided into three over-lapping spheres. And, again, since I will be delivering a total of three sermons over the course of these High Holy Days, you can all see how this is going to work…
This morning, we turn to the second paragraph of the vision statement. It reads:

“In sacred attachment to the Jewish people and with connection to the State of Israel, Reform Jews, as members of a group and as individuals, in holy congregations and in diverse settings, strive to make thoughtful choices about how we put our values into action. Reform Judaism asks us to seek the holiness that is present throughout creation through reflection, critical study, and sacred acts so as to renew our living Covenant with God, the people Israel, humankind, and the earth.”
The key points that I would like to highlight from this paragraph are the ideas of sacred attachment, reflection, critical study, and sacred acts. These highlighted points reflect the overall theme of the paragraph, which is obvious by its heading: In Community.
Community has been one of the central driving forces of Jewish life since the earliest days of our people. From the wilderness, to the ancient kingdom of Israel, to the lower east side, to Natchez, Sioux Falls, Pine Bluff, and Jefferson City, to Pompton Lakes, to Kinnelon, Jews have always sought out each other, forming close neighborhood enclaves and extended communities. Our Talmud reinforces this trend, teaching us in Sanhedrin 17b:

"A talmid haham (Torah scholar) is not allowed to live in a city that does not have these 10 things: a beit din (law court) that metes out punishments; a tzedakah fund that is collected by two people and distributed by three; a synagogue; a bath house; a bathroom; a doctor; a craftsperson; a blood-letter; a butcher; and a teacher of children"
The cities that the Talmud envisions as proper places for us to live must provide support for all of our basic needs. In the time when the Talmud was written, not all places had these luxuries that we all find so common. In ancient days, these “proper” communities had to be rather small and very close-knit. In contrast, today our “proper” community could, theoretically, be as large as a tank of gas would allow you travel. The beit din, the tzedekah fund, the butcher...and yes, even the blood-letter, do not have to be in your city, per-se, just so long as they are convenient. 
Such is the same with our synagogues and other Jewish communal organizations. In the past, our Jewish ancestors were forced to live in tight quarters with each other. Today we must only live in close proximity to each other; just a reasonable car-ride apart. This change in the geographical distance between fellow Jews has also altered the types of communities that we form. While we still organize ourselves in various types of groups, most notably the traditional synagogue/congregational model, the intimate nature of those groups, of our groups, is not what it used to be, nor is it what it should be. It should not take the High Holidays to bring together an entire congregation, we should feel the need to, and we should feel compelled to come together regularly throughout the year.
This is why the vision of building strong communities comes with those highlighted ideas that I shared just a moment ago. Sacred acts, critical study, reflection, and sacred attachment. These are the keys to strengthening the feeling of community in our congregations. We touched briefly on the ideas of critical study, reflection, and sacred acts on Wednesday evening as we explored our personal relationships with God, building towards increasingly meaningful worship. 
Indeed, feeling connected to prayer and finding prayer worthwhile and fulfilling will inspire each of us to attend services more often, resulting in more and more familiarity with each other, and leading towards a stronger sense of community. Yet critical study, engaging in sacred acts, and reflecting on our Jewish lives can also take on many forms outside of the realm of worship. Just as we are traditionally required to have a minyan, at least ten people together in order to pray, so too should Judaism be studied in groups. 
A traditional structure of Jewish study is the chevruta system; where two students will study a text together, reflecting, debating, discovering, and discerning what the text is saying and how it applies to their lives. This dynamic is only multiplied with larger and larger classes. We all know that if you put two Jews in a room you will get 3 opinions. In a class of Jews all studying some facet of Jewish life, imagine how many opinions would exist, and how many connections would be made with Jewish life and with each other. 
Sacred acts also help to build connections between us. Again, while coming to services and studying are sacred acts, there is a plethora of other sacred activities that we can do together. Whether or not you plan on coming to services, Shabbat dinner with family and friends is a great opportunity to build community in a sacred way. Further, as individual congregations or as a collective, we can engage in acts of tikkun olam. Coming to temple and making hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a shelter or a bridges run, or visiting and serving at soup kitchens, are also sacred actions which help to not only build community between us, but extends to the greater community as well. We could spend an afternoon at a food pantry helping to sort food, or go to a nursing home or hospital and visit the sick. And let’s not forget about Synagogue School, Jewish summer camp, teen programming, and youth group. Not only are all of these acts sacred in keeping with the teachings of our tradition, but they also help us create shared memories and form bonds with each other. 
Each of these various ways of building that sense of community is nothing without that final highlighted point from the vision: sacred attachment. Activities, social groups, services, studies...all of those help to build acquaintances and form some bonds. But in order to build a truly Jewish community we must feel a sense of sacred attachment, an unbreakable, spiritual, and higher connection that we all share as members of the Jewish people; a mutual responsibility that we feel towards one another.
The natural tendency to be connected one-to-another was even identified and expressed by, perhaps, the smartest Jew who ever lived, Albert Einstein. He said: 
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men-above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.”

We are all connected by our shared sympathy as Jews. Our collective memory of hardship, wandering, redemption, and life as a minority has enhanced that inherent connectivity between humanity with the need to draw close as a sacred community. And we fulfill that need not by programming and prayer alone. In order to truly realize that sense of sacred attachment for which we all yearn, we must build strong relationships with each other in the contexts of our synagogue building and our individual congregations.
This is the start of a brand new year for our congregations. On a personal note, with my first year as the JCK rabbi and our transitional year behind us, my main focus for the year will be on my JCK family, building our bonds with each other and with this building, and ensuring that we have ample opportunities to gather together socially and religiously throughout the year. May we all, JCK and CBS, take this year as a time to focus on our relationships with the members of our congregations and as a whole.
As we enter the new year, let us restore that sense of intimate community that our ancestors felt in their close-knit towns, let us actively choose to embrace our Judaism, and let us be aware of that sacred connection that we all share. My hope for 5774 is that, together, we will all find ways to connect to our tradition and to each other.  

"Return of the Leadership:" Kol Nidre, 2013/5774

The following is one of three sermons I delivered on the High Holidays (2013/5774). This "sermon trilogy" was delivered before the joint services including the Reform congregation I serve as rabbi, The Jewish Congregation of Kinnelon (JCK), and the Conservative congregation with whom we co-own the synagogue building, Congregation Beth Shalom (CBS). More information about the partnership between JCK and CBS can be found here.


"Return of the Leadership"

The date was September 28th, 1987.  There was excitement in the air that evening as, just like millions of others, I sat on the couch with my dad to watch the premier episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The voyages of the starship Enterprise, which began in 1966 under the command of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and their legendary crew, was now being handed over to Captain Picard, Commander Riker and their crew; a new generation to care for and take command of the Enterprise.

That same model of generational stewardship can be found in our Torah. After freeing our ancestors from Egypt, Moses led our people through the desert for 40 years. Just like the crews of the Enterprise, Moses had a crew of supporting characters to help him, including his brother Aaron, the high priest. But, no one person, no singular, stagnant crew can effectively shepherd a people for such an extended length of time. When the time came for Israel to fulfill its destiny and cross into the promised land, God handed over the reigns and gave the control, to a new crew. Joshua took the place of his mentor Moses, Eleazar took the place of his father Aaron, and the Israelite people, this great ship journeying through the wilderness, continued it’s voyage under the command and care of the next generation of leaders.

If you have been following my sermons these High Holidays, either on erev Rosh Hashanah or on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the next couple of paragraphs are, again, going to sound quite familiar!

Our ancient wisdom from Proverbs 29:18 teaches us that, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The Israelites and Jews of past generations knew what many of us know today; it is far easier to achieve your goal when you actually know what that goal is. 
As I have mentioned previously, the Union for Reform Judaism has gathered professional and lay leaders from the various branches of the movement in an effort to create a unified vision for Reform Judaism going forward. As of this summer, that Think Tank produced its final proposed vision statement. While this statement is a product of, and intended for the Reform Movement, many of the major themes that are expressed in the statement pertain to all of us.
The proposed vision statement for the Reform Movement is divided into three over-lapping spheres. Seeing as how I have already covered two of these spheres, this evening we will turn to the final sphere of the vision statement.
Under the heading of “With Leadership” the third paragraph reads:

“The organizations of the Reform Movement exist for the purpose of bringing the teachings of Judaism to the world. In partnership with one another, these organizations hope to realize the many lessons contained in those teachings by nurturing individual Jews, by sustaining congregations and groups that foster authentic and innovative community, and by shaping a shared destiny for Reform Jews with fellow Jews in Israel and around the world.”

This section envisions the role that the various organizations of the Reform movement play in leading the movement and creating an interdependent network that will help to strengthen each of the individual organizations. 
The vision of leadership espoused by the statement is one of responsibility and obligation to one another. This leadership, according to some of the key words from this paragraph should be one of partnership, with the goals of nurturing, sustaining, fostering, and shaping our microcosms. It must be stalwart, driven, and energetic with a clear sense of purpose. 

Strong, determined, vibrant, and visionary leadership is crucial, not only for guiding a movement, not only for shepherding a whole nation through the wilderness, and not only for commanding a starship in the 23rd or 24th centuries, but also for managing even the smallest of organizations; the congregations that we each call our own. Yet maintaining the strength, determination, vibrancy, and forward thinking of a congregation’s leadership requires remembering why each leader serves, periodically altering the crew that is in charge and, at indiscriminate moments, perhaps turning to a new generation of leaders.


Both of our congregations currently face a dilemma when it comes to leadership. For those who are unaware, and since we all could use a harsh reminder, neither of our congregations currently has a president. I will repeat that, neither CBS nor the JCK has a president. It is like a ship without a captain, a nation without a leader, and like the Israelites in the desert without Moses. 
When my colleagues ask how we manage to operate without a president, I share that we have a committed executive committee and board so we get by. But, that’s just it; we get by. Getting by is not good enough, and we have to do better.
The lack of a president is, in many ways, a symptom of a larger and more troublesome issue facing our communities. To the best of my knowledge, both of our congregations have, by and large and over the past many years, been recycling leaders. Our boards have either remained stagnant or have seen a turnover in the form of certain board members moving off the board, only to be replaced, more often than not, with former board members. This does not work.
In a blog post for the Women’s Rabbinic Network, my colleague Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling lists what she has derived as the “Ten Commandments for Smalls.” After serving a variety of small congregations, each under 100 families, she offers advice to congregations, like both of ours, to ensure our successful existences. As her second commandment, she writes:


“Enforce turnover in your leadership. What is the fastest way to kill a congregation? Allow certain members to sit on the board indefinitely. You absolutely must – and I cannot stress this enough – create a mechanism for turnover and see to it that your newcomers are able to cycle through the leadership positions. Otherwise, three things will happen, to your great detriment: (a) newcomers will leave because they will see that they have no hope of being heard (b) the ‘perma-members’ on the board will eventually veto any and all new ideas (‘we tried that before and it didn’t work’) and (c) if someone persists and actually tries implementing a new idea, doing so will create an old-guard/new-guard split. New blood is necessary to the health of the congregation.”


To her list of three detrimental things I would also add that, without turnover, our current leaders will begin to feel burnt out, grow cynical, might develop feelings of apathy for our congregations or, in the worst case scenario, just give up. 

The problem we face is the small and ever-shrinking pool of willing leaders. Which leads me back to one of those key words from the vision statement; partnership. Within our individual congregations we are all in partnership with, and responsible for, one another. I conveyed this idea on the second day of Rosh Hashanah with the goal of getting us each to realize the true sense of intimate, shared community. A congregation is nothing without relationships and the sacred attachment between one another.  To highlight that point, I shared with you this observation made by Albert Einstein: 

“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men-above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.”

In that sermon, however, I was a little less than honest with you; I only used half of Einstein’s quote. The rest reads:

“Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.”

Being a member of a community, especially a small congregation, comes with certain responsibilities to that community. Leadership of a congregation cannot be left to the few men and women who have been bold and spirited enough to step up. We should all feel a sense of pride in our congregations and a sense of duty and obligation to step into leadership roles. If nothing else, we should feel that same sense of indebtedness that Einstein expressed, the desire to give as much, if not more, than we received, and the drive to pay it forward.

Arguably, the greatest leader in all of Jewish history, again, is our pal Moses, who never wanted to be a leader in the first place. God called to Moses from the Burning Bush, summoning him to service. In that same vein I call upon all of you this evening. If you are not currently, or have yet to become a leader in either of our congregations, I am calling on you, asking for your support in the form of service to your congregation. We need your intelligence, honesty, energy, creativity, logic, and talent to help us pay it forward.
When God called upon Moses, Moses used every excuse he could think of to get out of leading the people. We all live hectic and busy lives and treasure every precious free moment in our schedules. Up until this point, I have labeled the idea of taking on leadership roles in our congregations as a duty, an obligation, and a debt that we need to pay. We all make excuses when trying to avoid adding to our calendars, especially when we are told that we are obligated to do something which we might not want to do. 
But taking on a leadership role goes far beyond obligation and debt. Taanit 11a in the Talmud teaches us, “When the community is in trouble, a person should not say, ‘I will go to my house and I will eat and drink and be at peace with myself.’” Further, Pirke Avot 2:2 teaches, “Let all those who occupy themselves with the business of the community do so only for the sake of heaven, for the merit of their ancestors will sustain them and their devotion, too, will endure forever.” To take time out of your busy day, to work for the benefit of your greater community, and to become a leader in your congregation is a mitzvah and, I can assure you, it will be a rewarding and enriching experience for our congregations and, most of all, for you.

To those who have previously fulfilled and those who are currently fulfilling the mitzvah of leading your community, I thank you for your time and effort. To those who have yet to take on the mantle of leadership, I ask you for your help. We need you, your energy, and your ideas. 
The Moses generation is expending more and more energy each day, growing increasingly tired and burnt out. The time for excuses is over. The time for true partnership, for shared responsibility, and for the fulfillment of a great mitzvah is upon us. Now is the time for the next generation, the Joshua generation, the Picard generation, to take control and lead the continued journeys of our congregations. 
Chazak v’Ematz, may you be strong and resolute in your service to your congregation, so that each of us, JCK and CBS, may live long and prosper.