November 5, 2013  

Jewish, Conservative, Egalitarian in Rockland County, NY … and thriving?

Talk about intense! This, the first day of October, is my first day to sit and digest what took place in our community over the past 25 days. By my rough calculation, nearly 8000 individuals crossed our threshold over this three and a half week period. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were, by all accounts, filled with beauty and spiritually uplifting. The joy of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah was certainly enhanced by the weather; but the prayer, song, multi-generational fellowship and shared appreciation of our rituals raised the celebration through the roof and above the sparse clouds. Long-time members were enthralled to see new faces—and so many little ones!—while new attendees marveled at the warmth, enthusiasm and passion emanating from so many. Not bad for a Conservative, egalitarian synagogue in Rockland County, New York with just over 500 families calling it their spiritual home! So you can imagine my astonishment (and perhaps you share the sentiment), as I bask in this warm glow, when I open my mail to read of the latest Jewish population survey, the first in ten years. According to the survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center, we are facing a major challenge to Jewish identification. Among non-Orthodox Jews, there is a growing segment of our community that identifies as Jewish, but without religion. Thirty-two percent of the Jews born after 1980 claim to be ethnically or culturally Jewish, but also claim to have no religion. Of particular concern is that of these self-identified Jews, two-thirds are raising children without any Jewish identity. If these results are to be trusted, then they predict that nearly a quarter of the children now being born to Jews will not be raised with any sense of Jewish identity.

I have taken you from the highs of Tishrei (the month with the most holidays) to the lows of Mar-Cheshvan (“bitter” Cheshvan, the month with no holidays), and the news of the day can certainly be deflating. In our little corner of the Jewish world, however, we know the answer to the challenge. We see it happening before us week in and week out. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel put it over 50 years ago, becoming a Jew is “a personal problem,” meaning that we must speak to every individual, to their joys, anxieties, fears, insecurities and searches for meaning. “Community” is merely a buzz word if it isn’t accompanied by true concern for the individual. Our communal celebration of Jewish life models one type of identification; more important, however, is the empowerment of individuals to transform their own homes into places of meaningful connection to each other, to Judaism and to God.How blessed we are to celebrate the first day of Chanukah on Thanksgiving this year. I predict that more Jews will celebrate the holiday of Chanukah this year—in its intended spirit and with greater meaning—than ever before. The secular values of our American Thanksgiving celebration prime us for a day of gratitude (and full bellies) and appreciation. Originally a day celebrating the harvest, Thanksgiving parallels our holiday of Sukkot. The first Chanukah celebration was, in fact, a delayed celebration of the Sukkot harvest festival. And just as the Raiders and Cowboys kick off the second game of the day, Jews will add to the warmth of this day by kindling our lights of dedication, freedom, gratitude and appreciation. Perhaps gifts will be exchanged; more importantly, however, a Jewish spark will be ignited in the midst of a secular experience. A flash of meaning will be reflected in every participant’s eyes. A connection will be established. A seed of Jewish identity and identification will be planted.

So don’t believe everything you read. The seeds are there. Water them with me, and we will witness another Chanukah miracle in our time.

Be’emunah, with faith,

Rabbi Craig Scheff

November 5, 2013  

Half a Minyan on Hoshana Rabbah

ImageSukkot is the time on the Jewish calendar that is called z’man Simchateinu – the time of our joy. As we head into the final two holy days of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, I look back and see that it has been an incredibly joyous week here at the Orangetown Jewish Center. I could say that the joy has been thanks to the perfect weather for sukkah sitting or due to our beautiful new sukkah filled with the decorations of our children. But most of all, the joy is thanks to the amazing people of our community. The festival days were uplifting as congregants paraded for the Hoshanot with our lulavim and etrogim. The Shabbat during Sukkot was filled with happiness as we kicked off Shabbaba Shabbat [for ages 0 to kindergarten every Shabbat at 11:00] and Family Congregation [for grades 1 through 6 every Shabbat at 10:30]. When all those little ones joined the rabbis on the bima for Ein Keloheinu, it was a snapshot of the OJC community at its best.  Young families had a sleepover at the synagogue on Saturday night, and on Sunday we had a full day of Sukkot activities, culminating in our annual sukkah dinner with almost 200 people celebrating together with Amichai Margolis and the Orangetones!

During the intermediate days of Sukkoth, we say Moadim l’simcha (may your intermediate Sukkot days be joyous)and we really mean it! As I told the children of our religious school yesterday as we hopped from sukkah to sukkah in our neighborhood, these days are intended to lift us up out of our everyday lives into something more.

And then came this morning which began at 6:45 with the service for Hoshana Rabbah. Traditionally, we chant hallel, read from the Torah, and march for our final time of this Sukkot with our lulav and etrog around the sanctuary, this time seven times.

This morning, however, we had just five people; that is, half a minyan. I considered feeling disappointed, but I thought back over the many congregants who had enjoyed part or all of the Sukkot celebrations all week. I decided instead to energized and dedicated to continue spreading the word of Jewish observance and celebration. Prayer minyans and holy day experiences in a Conservative synagogue are indeed a challenge, but I know that we can continue growing as a community.

Even if I wanted to feel disappointed that we were not able to have the Torah reading or open the ark, the five of us who were together in the sanctuary felt united in the holiness of the moment. There was not room for disappointment in the midst of the joy.

One of the most curious rituals in Jewish life takes place at services for Hoshana Rabbah as we beat willow branches, shaking free the leaves. As the leaves fall, we pray that our mistakes of the past year will be completely forgiven. In our synagogue, the willow branches are collected and wrapped artfully every year by a congregant who learned to do this when he was a young boy in Lowell, Massachusetts. He wraps small bunches of willow branches binding them together with a beautiful braid of palm. He creates these ritual objects with generosity and delight. How could I think about being disappointed if he wasn’t? When we finished the Hoshanot prayers, an older member of the minyan led us in a small circle dance. Certainly, our small group of five this morning was just as pleasing to God as the 200 people gathered in our sukkah this past Sunday night.

There is something grand to be said about a vibrant community that celebrates together across the generations as we did during the first days of Sukkot. But there is also something to be said for a community that accepts its responsibility to support our minyanim day in and out. May we all continue to enjoy the privilege of rejoicing in our Judaism and accept the responsibility of fulfilling our obligations.

I hope to see everyone tonight through Shabbat evening for a celebration at the end of Sukkot, finishing the Torah and beginning again. May this holiday season bring us great joy.

Chag sameach!

Rabbi Paula Mack Drill

October 30, 2013  

Ushpizin

Dear Officers Demeola and Achison,
On the eve of July 15, 2013, you responded to my call at the Orangetown Jewish Center. In the Jewish tradition, this evening (the 9th of Av) is observed as one of the saddest days on our calendar. At first, it seemed that the terrible losses we recall on this day would be increased by one more. When you arrived at our grounds, I led you to our entrance and pointed to the magnificent deer that was lying on its belly in our garden. Her head upright, her eyes shining through the flowering bushes, she did not move a muscle. I explained that she had been in the same place for at least four hours, that during that time 150 people had passed by her as they headed in and out of the building for prayer, and that she had not even twitched. (See the picture of her below, taken earlier in the evening.) You were certain she was injured; otherwise, she would have moved. You told me, so sadly, that there was nothing either of you (or anyone, for that matter) could do for her. She would have to be “dispatched” and moved in the morning.
Officer Demeola, you called upon your fellow officer because you could not bring yourself to do such a thing; Officer Achison, you were called upon as the “hunter” who would best know what to do. Indeed, you took your shotgun from the trunk of the police car, you put on your ear muffs, and you approached the beautiful animal. Standing no more than 6 feet from her, you raised and pointed your weapon, and prepared to fire. And then it happened. Was it a voice from the heavens that said “Do not send your hand against the animal?” Or was it a voice from within that called to you? With all that adrenaline pumping through your veins, all that focus and steely determination to do what had to be done, how did you hear the voice that called you to stop? What made you lower your weapon, climb into the bushes, stand three feet away from the deer, and clap 3 times? What gave you the sense that she would push herself to her legs, gingerly step out of the garden, and limp off into the woods?
I believe deeply that God has implanted within us the Divine quality of compassion. We don’t always hear that still, small voice that is calling out to us. So often it is drowned out by other noise. On this sad evening, however, you showed the power of compassion. You gave a living being the benefit of the doubt, a second chance, and in so doing you saved a life. If one could show such compassion for an animal, how can we not find the same compassion for each other. How often do we “pull the trigger” in word or in deed before giving our target the benefit of our compassion? Why can’t we offer our fellow man a chance to redeem themselves through a caring word of constructive criticism, or even an unearned and unrequested measure of forgiveness?
This week we celebrate the holiday of Sukkot. We trade in our homes for a week in a temporary shelter. We pray for clear skies, but we accept our vulnerability and we appreciate our connection to the natural world. We invite Ushpizin, honored guests, into our makeshift dwellings in an effort to show our purest and best selves. We connect to God, the world and our neighbors on the highest of spiritual planes. And we pray that the experience of these days will shape our conduct for the year ahead.
Officers Demeola and Achison, this week you are my Ushpizin, my honored guests. You honor us all with your service, your bravery, and your compassion. You have inspired me with your strength and your humility, and I am eternally grateful to you both.
Chag sameach,
Rabbi Craig Scheff
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October 30, 2013  

This is a Conservative Jewish synagogue?

As I looked at all of you from my place on the bima on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, I was thinking, “Where exactly is all the doom and gloom we read about in the Jewish press?  From all the articles and essays, one would think that the entirety of Conservative Judaism was in trouble.”  Yet you were all there, strong in numbers and spirit, singing the High Holiday tunes you love, reaching to honor the Torah in the processional, eager to hear the message of the sermon. Orangetown Jewish Center, tucked into a neighborhood close to the border of Rockland county, New York and
Bergen county, New Jersey, looks small and unassuming from the outside. Within its walls, however, on this second day of the New Year, members of forty years sat together with members who joined this past year and ten guests who joined us through the ticket bank of the Rockland Jewish Initiative (RJI). Hundreds joined together in the sanctuary, another couple of hundred prayed in the Havurah minyan.  Families with babies and toddlers celebrated the day in a Torah for Tots service, and grade school children participated in an interactive Rosh Hashanah experience led by three of our young adults.
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah families with young children and unaffiliated Jews from Rockland and Bergen joined us for a family service just before more than one hundred of us walked a mile together to a stream for the ritual of Tashlich (throwing away the bread crumbs of our sins). Everywhere I looked, I saw Jewish people looking for something meaningful and finding it.  Who could blame me for feeling optimistic as we enter the new year?
There are those, perhaps, who wonder about our congregants who come to synagogue just for the High Holy Days. There are people who judge our “Three time a year Jews.”  Rabbi Scheff and I feel quite differently about those who join us each year for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  We are delighted to see our congregation turn out in full. In our view, Jewish people who look at their calendars, see the Jewish New Year and begin making plans to celebrate and observe… are Jews who are keeping the sacred brit (covenant) of God and the Jewish people.  Every year, there are some congregants who are moved by their experiences on the High Holy Days to come see what all the excitement at Orangetown Jewish Center is about on the other days of the year.  
Someone might attend a class, a Shabbat service, a holiday celebration or a volunteer experience.  I am confident that if that seeking congregant is you, what you will find at OJC is a vibrant, welcoming home of egalitarian, Conservative Judaism. If you are looking for a way in, please contact us Rabbi.Scheff@theojc.org and Rabbi.Drill@theojc.org.  We cannot wait to welcome you home. G’mar chatimah tovah. May you be sealed for a joyous and meaningful new year.
Rabbi Paula Mack Drill
October 30, 2013  

A new year, a new web site, my first blog…

Allow me to preface my remarks by saying that Rabbi Drill and I believe we have an important message to share. We believe the OJC has an important message to share. If we didn’t, we probably would have hung up our tallises long ago. In a world where we are being bombarded by messages constantly, often with little relevance to our lives, we believe it is our obligation to share our message as widely and as effectively as possible. That is, in large part, the reason that we launch this second generation of the OJC website today.
Sharing our message in this way, I must admit, does not come so easily to me. I would much rather share our message on a Shabbat morning in synagogue or sitting around a table in my office. I realize, however, that relationship-building can take place in many diverse ways and through many diverse media. As a communicator and a relationship-builder, it is my task to grow in the year ahead, and to learn how to utilize all the different media that can assist us in disseminating our priceless message, in engaging others and in bringing them closer to God and to community.
This website in general, and this blog in particular, will give us the ability to share the pearls of inspiration that we gather from you every day. It is time for those who don’t find themselves regularly within the physical walls of the OJC to know about the Torah that is being revealed in our discussions; the prayers that are being answered every day; and the Divine presence that is made manifest in the acts of selflessness taking place in our community every day.
A new year, a new web site, my first blog…. Truly a shehechiyanu moment!
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