synagogue

Divre Harav – February, 2024

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There is something majestic about the architecture of a large sanctuary that draws one’s attention upwards towards God’s presence. A room full of people absorbs and mutes some of the sound, but the acoustics of a well designed sanctuary amplify the power of the leader’s voice. On Rosh Hashanah, in between sets of shofar sounds, I like to let the sound echo and die down before continuing on with the next set. It is a reminder that when we do a mitzvah, the effect of that action resonates through the world like the rings of waves coming off a stone thrown into a pond.

Because of pandemic precautions on keeping our distance from other people and increasing concerns about the security of gathering in a space without an emergency exit, we have been almost exclusively using our Sanctuary since resuming in-person services on June 13, 2020, after temporarily suspending services in the building the previous March 18. Our weekday minyan has used the chapel and we did hold several festival services in the chapel on Sundays when All Souls was using the Sanctuary, but for almost four years, we didn’t use the chapel on Shabbat mornings.

We began meeting in the chapel again on Shabbat morning the first week in January, after installing an external exit and a camera to broadcast the service online. I’d gotten used to the feel of 25-35 people in the sanctuary. The first several times meeting in the chapel, it felt crowded, as if there were too many people impinging on my space. We need a certain amount of personal space, but we also tend to like the warmth of the presence of others. The sounds of many voices fill the space of the room, a room full of bodies absorbs and softens the sound, reducing harsh echoes. The quality of the sound and the feeling of community quickly dispel the sense of claustrophobia. This reminds me of a midrash found in Pirke Avot (5:5), that one of the miracles which took place in the Temple was that on Yom Kippur, people were packed in the courtyard like sardines, yet when the time came for them to fall prostrate upon hearing the name of God, each person had ample room to do so comfortably. The sense of being packed into a cramped space cheek to jowl gave way to a more expansive reality.

It is true that we can fulfill our role as Jews in the world without entering a synagogue. Yet our tradition teaches that whenever people gather for prayer or to study Torah, God’s presence rests on the assembly. We can pray alone, but our prayers are intensified by the music of the blended voices of a community. Here are some times that you might make a special effort to come to shul on Shabbat morning:

  • On the Shabbat before a Yahrtzeit, to say Kaddish and take an aliyah in memory of your deceased loved one.
  • When someone in your family is ill and you want their name to be included in a prayer for healing.
  • When a communal tragedy has happened and you don’t want to be alone.
  • When we are having a monthly Shabbat lunch.

A community like Ahavas Israel depends on a certain number of people we can count on every week to make a minyan, but we also count a larger group of people to come at regular intervals to fill the room with warmth, voices, and your participation. Please mark your calendar at some regular interval to join us as a part of our synagogue’s Shabbat community.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • Kehillah, community
  • Shekhina, the Divine Presence

A response to the tragedy at MSU

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The best short term response to the tragic shooting at MSU this week is to go to your house of worship this Saturday or Sunday. To find out why, read on:

Ford produces cars. Microsoft produces software for presenting ideas. Apple produces hardware on which we produce or consume content. AT&T and Comcast and Verizon and T-Mobile create networks for connecting and sharing content. Walmart and Amazon sell virtually everything. Chase manages and produces money. Exxon Mobil produces petroleum products. Consumer’s Energy produces electricity. Hilton creates places for travelers to gather.

Every business and non-profit produces or creates something. Every organization has a purpose. The role of synagogues, churches, houses of worship is unique – our mission and our product is goodness in the best and broadest sense. We teach people how to be good, we encourage people to be good. We are the only institution with this mission. There are many other organizations and businesses which do good things, like providing food, shelter, clothing, protection from harm, medical care, education, and more. But the core mission of an institution of religion is to transform and shape the human animal into a better human being.

Most, but not all, houses of worship advance their mission by invoking God. Teaching and scripture invoking a transcendent Divine are a powerful way to encourage people to live up to a high set of ideals and behavior. But strictly speaking, I’m not arguing here that belief in God makes people better. I’m arguing that gathering together regularly in a religious community makes people better.

If you don’t gather regularly in a house of worship, where do you learn what goodness is? Where is your impulse to be a good person reinforced and encouraged? Not on social media, not by consuming media content, not in the workplace, or in the sports arena or the gym or at the theater or in the classroom or in any other place, real or virtual, where people regularly gather.

On Tuesday, the morning after the tragic shooting at MSU resulting in the death of three people and the injury of five others, I shared the following at our morning service:

Near the end of our weekday morning service we read Psalm 20, including the verse, “They call on chariots, they call on horses, but we call on the name of Adonai our God.” Chariots and horses were the technology and the heavy weapons of their day. Ultimately, reliance on the technology of weapons brings death. The antidote to reliance on instruments of war and destruction is to gather in places focused on transcendent behavior, on goodness.

It is possible, but unlikely, that the MSU shooter or any of the previous 66 mass shooters so far this year went to church or to any other house of worship regularly. Attending worship regularly does not guarantee that there will be no tragic shootings. But if houses of worship do their job of producing goodness well and if more people committed to attending, it’s hard to imagine that it would not have a positive effect. And stronger background checks, gun safety laws such trigger lock or gun safe requirements, and extreme risk protection laws could also help.

If you are part of the Ahavas Israel community, please join me this Shabbat. If you are a part of another religious community, here or elsewhere, please join your community this weekend. And if you are not part of a religious community, please consider finding one in your area and making a commitment to grow goodness.