6

KOL NIDRE NIGHT

SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

It was the great rabbi Hillel who declared אל תפרוש מן הציבור -- do not separate yourself from the needs of the community.

All of us belong to several communities simultaneously, from macro to micro, secular to religious.

Today I want to discuss two of the communities to which most of us belong: the first is what I call the greater East Meadow Jewish community, and the second is the East Meadow Jewish Center community.

Being part of an area Jewish community means working cooperatively with other synagogues, temples, and Jewish organizations; it means respecting each one’s religious outlook, even if it might not be our own. It involves sometimes making compromises for the good of the greater Jewish community.

All of us take a great deal of pride in the unity exhibited by the components of our greater East Meadow Jewish community. For example, as you may have heard, Temple Emanu-El faces a serious problem because the congregation has discovered that there are now structural issues with their beautiful round sanctuary. The administration of Temple Emanu-El has decided to close the sanctuary, pending a full evaluation and decision as to how to proceed. I want all of you to know that as soon as we heard of their problems, both our synagogue president, Mark Katz, and I, as the rabbi of the East Meadow Jewish Center, reached out to our counterparts at Temple Emanu-El to offer them the use of our building, particularly on Friday nights, when it would not conflict with us. We extended our hands to them because that is what Jewish communal institutions do for each other, just as Temple Emanu-El allowed us to use their sanctuary for a Bat Mitzvah service in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy when we did not have electricity and they did. Moreover, Rabbi Bar Nahum of Temple Emanu-El and I agreed that we would open our respective Adult Education programs to members of the other’s synagogue.

As I mentioned last week, we have experienced reduced attendance over the past few years at the East Meadow Jewish community’s Israel Bonds and UJA breakfasts. Part of the reason is that a couple of the other synagogues or temples have such low membership that they cannot find either honorees or participants; alternatively, perhaps the breakfast format is no longer the best venue for raising funds for Israel. Nonetheless, as a Jewish community we must support the State of Israel, particularly at this difficult time, with the Iran nuclear deal and with the anti-Israel BDS movement gaining momentum, and we must support our fellow Jews in need here in this part of the country and throughout the world. That is what it means to be a Jew: to financially support other Jews and Israel. I hope that we can count on all of you to support the Israel Bonds campaign in October and the U.J.A. campaign in the spring, no matter what form they may take. We here at the East Meadow Jewish Center can be justly proud that we constitute the strongest component of both of these efforts within our Jewish community.

We certainly hope that the East Meadow school system’s move to a full day kindergarten program will attract more young Jewish couples and families to our community – a development that can only work to the benefit of our Jewish community.

But to my mind, the most fascinating phenomenon that we may be experiencing in the East Meadow community is the arrival of Orthodox families. As you might have heard, at least one Orthodox family has moved to East Meadow so far, and others supposedly are actively looking to purchase homes in our community.

Some of those who have heard about this potential change have asked me what my feelings are. Allow me to share with you: In my opinion, the movement of young Orthodox families will help stabilize the Jewish-ness of the greater East Meadow area; that is certainly positive. Some of you have asked me where these families might daven. My answer is that they are not going to daven on Shabbos in our sanctuary, first because of the microphone; second, because of the mixed seating – men and women sitting together; and, third, because of women’s leading certain prayers at our services. Perhaps they will walk to the Young Israel of North Bellmore, but that would require an eruv, a point to which I will return in a few moments. Perhaps they will start their own shul.

But it seems to me that the arrival of Orthodox families presents us with a potential opportunity for community unity. For example, we would like to encourage them to send their children to our pre-Nursery and Nursery School programs; after that, they will undoubtedly send their children off to yeshiva. Perhaps we should be willing to discuss some space arrangement for Shabbos for them, and perhaps, if possible, joint daily minyans on weekdays. That would involve compromise on both sides, but in the interests of Jewish unity and non-fragmentation it might be doable, if people put aside their partisan concerns. It has worked in other nearby communities, and perhaps it would be good for us, too.

A few moments ago I mentioned an eruv. For those of you who do not know – and don’t be embarrassed because I didn’t know this growing up – one of the actions that is forbidden on Shabbat is carrying any item from one’s private domain out into the public domain, and vice versa. That means, for example, that one should not carry one’s tallis or purse or even keys out of your home and into shul on Shabbos. The same prohibition precludes the wheeling of baby carriages on Shabbat.

There is a way around this prohibition, and that is to enclose a public area with a fence-like boundary called an eruv; here, in twenty-first century America, it usually involves utilizing the already existing telephone or cable wires and small pieces of wood called lechis that are nailed to telephone poles. The eruv enables Jewish people to carry within this boundary.

In all certainty Orthodox families moving to East Meadow would require an eruv. I admit to you that I am no expert when it comes to constructing an eruv -- it was not a topic we studied in detail at the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary -- but it is a project that I know I would support personally and rabbinically, as it would make our community more attractive from a Jewish perspective. I even have some funds set aside for this purpose.

But what about our own East Meadow Jewish Center community?

As you know, I sometimes use one of my High Holy Days sermons to introduce some goals for our shul for the coming year. This year I have two projects in mind.

First, we are a graying congregation. Thank God, many of our members are living well into the 80s and 90s, but sometimes advancing age brings mobility issues; once vibrant members who used to participate regularly can no longer do so. Some of our formerly active members can rarely leave their homes, and others are now residents in assisted living facilities. Many of them crave contact with the congregation and with other congregants; some of them do not have family living nearby.

I therefore propose that we establish an East Meadow Jewish Center Bikkur Vatikim society. “Bikkur Vatikim” literally means “visiting the elderly or veteran” members, and the name is clearly a take-off on Bikkur Cholim, which means “visiting the sick”. To explain the difference: Members of a Bikkur Cholim society visit the sick, primarily in hospitals; in fact, many years ago I established a Bikkur Cholim society here at EMJC, but due to confidentiality laws and due to the fact that patients are usually discharged from the hospital very quickly these days, our Bikkur Cholim Society stopped functioning. This would be different: The volunteers in our Bikkur Vatikim Society would visit EMJC members residing in assisted living facilities and those confined to home. An immobile EMJC member would receive a visit from a volunteer member of our Bikkur Vatikim Society once a week, if possible, and that would be in addition to the visits that I already make. Trust me: such visits to our shut-ins would bring them much joy, would help dispel their boredom and depression, and would be a big mitzvah; I know that such visits would be greatly appreciated.

I will send out a notice seeking volunteers to serve on our Bikkur Vatikim Society. You do not need any special skills, though we will conduct a session for volunteers on how to make an appropriate visit. I am seeking volunteers of any age; you just have to have an hour or so a week – preferably during the day or early evening – your own transportation, and, of course, a desire to help a fellow congregation member and a willingness to perform an important mitzvah.

Second, as a Conservative synagogue, the East Meadow Jewish Center is a Jewish community dedicated to the observance of Jewish law; the maintenance of Jewish traditions; the preservation of Jewish culture; the spread of Jewish learning; living according to Jewish morals, ethics, and values; and the betterment of the world through social action and community involvement. I want us as a congregation to formalize our allegiance to these principles, and therefore next month I want to inaugurate what I am calling our “Mitzvah of the Month, or ‘MOM,’ Project”.

The way the program will work is as follows: each month I will introduce the mitzvah in which I want all of our congregants to participate. I will tell you now that, reflecting the principles of a synagogue community which I just enunciated, some of these actions will involve prayer, ritual, education, culture, and service to others. All of them will be do-able by all members of our synagogue community, from our youngest children to our most senior veteran members; they will be appropriate for families with young children, families with older children, empty-nesters, singles, and couples. You will be able to do them on your own, or as a family. The Nursery School and Hebrew/Hebrew High School will also be involved.

Once you perform the mitzvah for that particular month, you will email me to a special email address that I have established for this purpose that you completed that month’s mitzvah. You can fulfill the monthly mitzvah as many times as you wish during that month (and hopefully afterwards, too), and email me each time you do. Given that we have about 325 member families (and, obviously, many more individual members, if we count each individual member and their children separately) and twelve months before the High Holy Days next year (yes, next year the Holidays are late; the first day of Rosh Hashanah is October 3rd), I would hope that by next Rosh Hashanah I would have at least 5,000 email messages in my special Mitzvah of the Month e-mailbox informing me that people have performed the monthly mitzvot. That’s my minimum goal: 5,000 mitzvot performed as part of the “Mitzvah of the Month Program” by the members of this congregation by next Rosh Hashanah.

The first “Mitzvah of the Month,” the one for October, is a variation on something I suggested many years ago, but it is important enough to repeat. It is quite easy to perform, and it is certainly within the ability of every person to accomplish. And that mitzvah is simply this:

Recite the Shema twice a day – in the morning and at night.

Let me give you the details:

What do I want you to do?

1. Pick a day in October, preferably towards the beginning of the month.

2. When you get up that morning, recite the Shema. To fulfill the “Mitzvah of the Month” you may say the single line, שמע ישראל הי אלהינו ה' אחד, or, preferably, say that line and the ואהבת paragraph, too. If you want to say it – fine; if you want to sing it – fine. If you do not know it, or cannot read it, in Hebrew – do it in English. If you do not know it at all, google “Shema” and you will find everything you need. If you have children who have not learned it yet, or who are too young to say it, recite it in their presence; trust me, they will learn it – or at least to recognize it -- very quickly. This is something you can do individually, or as a family.

3. Do it again before you and your family go to sleep.

4. Email me at the special web address – or -- that you have fulfilled the Mitzvah for the Month. If there are, for example, four members of your family and you all did it together, please so indicate in the email.

5. I strongly encourage you to undertake this more than just the one time to complete the “Mitzvah of the Month” participation, but every day for the month; and you can send me an email every time you do so.

Why did I pick this mitzvah to inaugurate our “Mitzvah of the Month” campaign? – For several reasons:

First, because, as I already have mentioned, this is a mitzvah that is easily do-able by everyone in the congregation. Right?

Second, by reciting the Shema, you will actually be fulfilling several mitzvot at once. According to Maimonides, by saying the Shema, which is a mitzvah in and of itself, you will fulfill the mitzvot of recognizing God’s existence, acknowledging His unity, and loving God. That’s four of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah just by reciting the Shema. That’s a lot of bang for the buck.

Third, saying the Shema is a marvelous way to orient our lives because it demands that we realize that it is the Lord who is our one and true and only God. Okay, that may seem obvious to you. But I ask you: how many people do you know, and how many people have you heard about, who instead of worshipping God, worship money, physical possessions, fame, power, or some other vanity or false god? Saying the Shema makes us realize that there is Someone above us whose expectations of us encourage us to live moral and ethical lives, and to make this world a better place for all.

Fourth, in my opinion, reciting the Shema as we begin our day creates a special, almost holy atmosphere, and sets a spiritual tone, for the rest of the day – a holy atmosphere and a spiritual tone that can accompany us in everything we do. It has the potential to make our work more meaningful, and even the mundane tasks we perform just a little more uplifting. And singing the Shema before we go to bed allows us to sleep tranquilly, knowing that God’s presence is protecting us.