Hanging On What

Dear friends,

On Rosh Hashanah we say that the Earth is תלוי על בלימה, a poetic phrase meaning something like hanging on nothingness, suspended in air, sitting on a void. The first word, תלוי means hanging or dependent. The second word על means on. The third word, בלימה is actually composed of two words: בלי - meaning without, and מה - meaning what. So the world, we repeat repeatedly on its birthday, is hanging on without what. Its continued existence is as miraculous as its inception. 

The same can be said of any Shul, synagogue, or Jewish community. There is a contradiction at the heart of the enterprise, which is exacerbated in this time and place: A connection to the ancient in a country founded on newness; A celebration of identity inside a melting pot; A community in a city where community is close to impossible to maintain. 

The New Shul is an even more extreme example of “hanging on nothingness.” We don’t only contain the contradictions inherent to any Shul, but we do it without the foundation of belonging to a formal Jewish denomination. We insist on doing the Jewish thing like no one has done it before.  In order to connect with the generations before us we create new rituals founded on ancient principles. We maintain that a Shul is a place of art, ideas, justice, and those are the channels through which the traditional ideas can flow. We refuse to let the ancient remain in the ancient, nor the contemporary in the contemporary. Instead, we look to bring the ancient into the contemporary, and the now into the tradition of our ancestors. We offer a community to people to whom gathering weekly for services, like previous generations did, is too often, and many of whom gather only once or twice a year.  

So what actually keeps this impossible contradiction alive? 

One of the answers became apparent on Wednesday evening when ten Shul members gathered for what might not sound so exciting, but in this case it was. I’m talking about the Va’ad meeting, the board of the Shul. Our board is made up of volunteers who are excited to be a part of this grand experiment called The New Shul and steer this amorphous entity to keep it alive and thriving. 

The Hebrew word for Board is Va’ad. It comes from a complex three-letter root, ו-ע-ד, which normally means coming together, meeting or uniting. But it’s related to an almost identical root, י-ע-ד, which denotes heading somewhere, destination, purpose, and the same root can also mean “to witness.” When you put these together you get a group of people coming together to witness each other as they move in unison toward a particular purpose.  

There were several exciting things that went down at this meeting. First, there was a reckoning with whether or not the members of the Va’ad have been doing enough. People spoke about the purpose of the va’ad, and with wisdom and honesty typical to each one, they expressed their ideas about where they’ve been doing less than enough, and their commitment to doing and giving more. When you take into consideration how busy these people are, and how long many of them have already been on the va’ad, the generosity of spirit was moving. 

The next extraordinary event was when David Schoenberger, who has been the President of the Va’ad for the past three years announced that he was ready to step down. “My arms are tired,” he said in Moses-like fashion. David, as we all knew has been volunteering long hours with generous heart and determined mind to keep this ship afloat through the choppy waters of the last few years.  He held it up not only with his arms.  

David’s announcement could have triggered anxiety. Instead, the gratitude we all felt toward him gave way to another extraordinary moment, in which Judy Minor offered to step up and take his place and was voted in unanimously. Judy is a natural, no-nonsense leader who is passionate about the Shul and devoted to its core principles. I’ve had the good fortune to put together the Kumah Festival with her the last two years, and Susan and me are incredibly excited to work with her and the Va’ad on writing the next chapter in the unlikely life of this Shul. 

For those of you who have been on boards, you will know that a board meeting isn’t always such an exciting prospect. But when the people on it are wonderful, the care and purpose in their presence emerges, and moments like took place this week happen. Community is held together by invisible strings. And also by the volunteer work of people in the community.  

Thank you to the members of the Va’ad: Barry Adler, Ricki Long, Rob Milam, David Rosenberg, Jessica Slote and Gregg Shatan. 

Thank you to David Schoenberger for your incredible service of love over the past three years. 

And thank you and Mazal Tov to Judy Minor for taking on the role of the President of the Va’ad.  

Let’s keep making the impossible happen. 

Shabbat shalom, and I hope to see you tomorrow morning at First Pres at Emmy's Bat Mitzvah.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Misha