All Together Now

When I was a kid, the Purim carnival was all about the Men’s Club – or so it seemed to me. They coordinated everything, food, games, moonbounce, tickets, prizes – it was their show. I was a kid, and my only concern was winning a goldfish. (Keeping it alive later was a lower priority and probability!)

Jump forward about 35 years. This afternoon was the Purim carnival at our temple. For a variety of reasons, I played a larger role that ever before, as did the members of the Religious School Committee. It was amazing!

Now its amazing-ness had nothing to do with anything I did. I tried very hard to follow the well-designed plan of our Family Educator, who has done it for years. And her foresight made everything work. What was amazing was what my changed perspective allowed me to see, and what I am certain was always there.

It’s about the numbers. A committee of 8 people planned the carnival, made the calls and made things happen. 14 people baked cakes for the cake walk. 20 people showed up early to join the maintenance staff in setting up. 12 adults and 82 kids (grades 4 – 12) came and ran the booths. The brotherhood brought a dozen to prepare and serve the food. Another dozen stayed to clean up. And during it all, they schmoozed. Some were already friendly with one another. Others were acquainted or met one another for the first time.

It was a thrill to watch! This is not the most intellectual, spiritual or educational event in our calendar. I was excited to see the connections being made, renewed and deepened. It occurred to me that with all of our wikis focusing on Hebrew, conferences on educational technology and blogs bemoaning the failure of institution X to reach goal Y, that we sometimes overlook the most important value of all – community. And that value is modeled and lived in many places, including in the kitchen as the “Pressure Cookers” of the Brotherhood get ready to feed several hundred people!

This all seems very kamuvan – obvious – but we often take it for granted. Look at the 28 Ideas, 28 Ideas blog. No, really, go there. It is really cool and interesting. More importantly for my point, most of the ideas there are creative explorations of how can better connect the Jewish people. In other words, it is about community. 21st century, hyper-connected and tech savvy, but community nonetheless. So let's keep our eye on the prize!

They tried to kill us. They failed. Let’s eat – together!

And now on to Pesach!

Searching for Everyday Miracles

Most of us live our lives like commuters, not paying much attention to the "scenery" of life as we move from one activity to another. Commuters move on auto-pilot, and only pay attention to experiences that jar us from the everyday. So, the birth of a baby or a visit to the Grand Canyon is a miracle moment, but watching your toddler learn to talk is just the natural, developmental progression of a two year old. In today's miracle-jaded society, if an event would not make the evening news it isn't a miracle.

Judaism asks us to be more sensitive to the everyday miracles around us. In being more sensitive to miracles, we may come to greater appreciate Judaism as our tour guide to a miraculous world. In an important and often neglected teaching, the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hassidic Judaism, reminds us that miracles are happening every day but we “take our little hand and cover our eyes, " and the miraculous disappears.

Judaism recognizes two types of miracles, the revealed and the hidden. The miracle of Purim, the saving of the Persian Jewry through the efforts of Esther and Mordechai, is considered a hidden miracle, because God is never mentioned explicitly in the Purim story. Nevertheless, Jewish tradition "writes" God into the story by recognizing certain plot twists as only possible through God's intervention. For example, when King Achashverosh is unable to sleep, checks his royal annals, and is reminded of Mordechai’s loyalty, the Rabbis understand this verse to mean that God, the King of the Universe, woke up to the plight of Persian Jewry and began to work behind the scenes, through Mordechai and Esther, to save the Jews from annihilation.

The revealed miracles of the Bible are more familiar to us, including movie-worthy moments such as the splitting of the Sea of Reeds. It is easy to forget that Purim is a miracle, so the Rabbis wrote Al HaNissim, a prayer that reminds us that Purim is no less of a miraculous event as the Exodus from Egypt. This prayer begins by thanking God “for the miracles, for the redemption, for the mighty deeds and triumphs, and for the battles which You did perform for our ancestors in those days, at this season.” The prayer continues “You (G-d) in Your great mercy did frustrate his (Haman) counsel and upset his plan; You did cause his plans to backfire upon his own head, so that he and his sons were hanged upon the gallows.” Notice that the Al HaNissim prayer does not praise Mordechai or Esther at all, despite the fat that they are the heroes of the story.

The Al HaNissim prayer, which is also said during Channukah (a different version), reminds us to recognize the miraculous even when events don't stop us in our tracks. Treating our daily experiences as mundane might be necessary to get to work but does not need to spill into all of our daily experiences. Take some time to be awed once in a while and it will transform you into a more appreciative person and, at the same time, put your place in this world into perspective. This is a way that Judaism can make our lives more sensitive to the world around us. Ironically, we have the ability to cover our eyes and make miracles disappear. That doesn't make us powerful, just blind.

Tovim Ha-Shnayim...Strength in Numbers

Collaboration: A recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals.
Merger: When two organizations join together into one, with one organization surviving and the other disappearing. The assets and liabilities of the disappearing entity are absorbed into the surviving entity.

We are at a time in American Jewish history that’s transforming the Jewish Community as we have known it to be. Agencies are responding to the recession by closing down, merging, collaborating in new ways, and re-identifying themselves. And so we hear about two agencies merging and we mourn for the loss of one of them. Or congregations create a combined high school and we are saddened at the implication that their numbers were too low on their own so they had to collaborate as a matter of survival. We assume that when congregations merge, they are in a position of weakness and they had no other choice.

But mergers and collaborations are potentials for streamlined efforts, for exciting new initiatives and for stronger communities. When a congregation can reflect on its strengths and weakness, and

work with others in the community

to support and build on the others strengths and weaknesses, the end users, the congregants (and the community) are the beneficiaries.

We know that this is a difficult time for synagogues; population studies are showing us that our communities are older, intermarried and not affiliating, and shrinking in size. Research is showing us that Movement demographics are shifting; buildings are aging; both Day Schools and Congregational schools are struggling to fill their classrooms (with students and qualified, quality teachers.) And in many communities, synagogue leaders are territorial – if it doesn’t happen within our walls, it’s not good for our congregation.

So what is a congregation to do?

How does the leadership consider options for moving beyond the proverbial four walls and network and share with other congregations in their area in order to strengthen their home congregation?

This is part of my work at the Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education/Jewish Outreach Partnership www.acaje-jop.org (a recently combined agency still working on a new name). Later this week we will be meeting with synagogue leaders to talk about collaboration and how building relationships and networks can provide opportunities. It is our belief that there are numerous ways to collaborate without losing institutional identity while providing services to the community, often at a higher level of quality.

The difficult economy has a silver lining for the Jewish Community if we can take a step back, reflect, and see what we have to offer each other. Kohelet, Ecclesiestes said it quite well – Tovim ha-shnayim min ha-echad: Two are better than one.