Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

One of the best compliments you can give to anyone is that they show up.

Think of that simple phrase showing up. How do you not love someone who always shows up when you need them?

It can apply to all kinds of thingsfrom showing up for meaningful and joyful events to visiting someone in the hospital. It can be showing up to help a friend whos down or showing up to volunteer at a soup kitchen.

The idea is the same: People who show up dont settle for just words or thoughts. They walk the walk.

As we slowly crawl out of a pandemic that shook up the planet, and with the High Holidays right around the corner, the question of who will show up in synagogues this year is front and center.

The past two High Holiday seasons were hobbled by COVID and its pesky variants. While were still not totally out of the woods, this year is markedly different. Events are back. Shops and restaurants are fully open. Restrictions have waned.

In other words, its a lot harder to use COVID as an excuse to not go to shul.

The problem is that habits that offer us maximum comfort are hard to shake. Especially for those in the non-Orthodox world who have gotten used to watching services on Zoom in the coziness of their homes, the choice of trekking back to shul is no longer obvious.

In a way, this is unprecedented. If theres one thing we could always count on in the Jewish world, its that the great majority of Jews will attend Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. Just like in that famous Curb episode, the only issue is getting good tickets.

But in speaking to some rabbis across the community, theres a general feeling, bordering on anxiety, that weve entered new territory.

In an impassioned recent sermon that would have been relevant in most synagogues, Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple called on his flock to stop being observers and start being participants and be a community again like we have been for thousands of years.

He reminded them that a synagogue is not called a Bet Tefilla, a house of prayer, but a Bet Knesset, a house of gathering, and that without gathering, there is no community.

It is impossible to live a full Jewish life without a community, Wolpe said.

The rabbi focused on the Jewish communal ritual of gathering in a synagogue. But there are other uniquely Jewish rituals that beckon us. In her Journal cover story this week, Roberta Kwall argues that those rituals are crucial to nurturing a strong Jewish identity.

The point is not to create Orthodox Jews, she writes, but rather to create more Jews who are committed to the practice of vibrant religiously liberal Judaism.

Kwall acknowledges that the Torah underscores the role of ethics, morality and social justice, values that are now seen as universally relevant, and that many modern American Jews embrace these universalized values as the essence of their Jewish identity.

Her point is not to downplay these universal values, but rather to highlight the irreplaceable value of Jewish rituals in strengthening Jewish identity.

I call it the value of going out of your way.

If I base my Jewish identity mostly on societal and ethical values I would follow regardless of my Judaism, nothing Jewish stands out as my actions blend in with the world. I may be deeply satisfied, but that doesnt mean I will feel more Jewish.

If I go out of my way, however, to attend synagogue, prepare and host Shabbat dinner, take Torah classes, celebrate Jewish holidays, and engage with other uniquely Jewish rituals, it follows that I will be nurturing a more distinct Jewish identity.

The ideal is to find enough joy and meaning in Jewish rituals so it wont feel like you need to go out of your way.

If we hope to recapture this year the electricity of standing-room-only High Holiday crowds in our main sanctuaries, more Jews than ever will need to go out of their way.

If we hope to recapture this year the electricity of standing-room-only High Holiday crowds in our main sanctuaries, more Jews than ever will need to go out of their way. That would mean leaving the comfort of backyard minyans in the Orthodox world or online services in the non-Orthodox world.

If youre one of those Jews feeling ambivalence, look at it this way: If going out of your COVID comfort zone means to be a community again, like we have been for thousands of years, isnt that worth trekking back to your main shul to make your rabbis and community happy?

Dont you want to be known as the kind of person who always shows up when people need you?

Dont you want to be known as the kind of person who always shows up when people need you?

Read the original here:

Are We Ready to Show Up? - Jewish Journal

Category: Judaism
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