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January 2006

As I've mentioned in my past few columns, I have been quite moved by the kavannah, the depth of spirit and prayer, and the rich sense of community that has been so evident in our recent services. A few of you have spoken with me about this and shared something about the ways in which you experienced that prayer and spirit.

That sharing gave me the idea that it may be valuable for us to collect such reactions more generally, and then share them, as we do our random acts of kindness, on the High Holidays—also, of course, anonymously. Although, on one level these are deeply personal experiences, they emerge from our coming together. It would be helpful I think, particularly but not exclusively for our young people, to get some idea of why it is that people pray, why it is that people take time away from so many other things they might be doing to engage in worship together.

Jim Levinson, Sh'liach Tzibur
 

I suspect that we would hear a wide variety of experience. For some it might be deeply spiritual, a conversation with God, or an opportunity to seek guidance at a difficult time in life, or a behest for the speedy recovery of a loved one, or a means of gaining some reassurance of who we are; for others it might be carrying out a mitzvah, a commandment; for still others it might be a mystical experience, an opportunity to experience the mystery of God's presence, or perhaps, a way of reconnecting with a loved one no longer with us.

Some of us might find that wondrous things happen when we come together as a community seeking the presence of the divine, or the activation of the divine within ourselves—may find possible in community what is much more difficult alone, may be able to feel that spirit created in our midst—something which doesn't come from the walls of a building, but rather from gathering in it. That spirit, one congregant told me, allows her to put in perspective her own ills and disappointments, indeed to transcend them.

Of course, as we've said often, the spiritual is not the only way to access Judaism. Some of us come to shul for community, for the camaraderie of kindred spirits. For some the access to Judaism is through education, and the learning that takes place particularly in our Torah services and our Torah study. Still others access Judaism through the responsibility passed down to us for "tikkun olam," for healing the world, for social justice in a world desperately in need of such healing.

During the coming months, let's give some thought to this important question. Then please let me know your experience. What happens to you in these services? What brings you to our common worship or our adult education classes or any of our other rich activities? How is it that you are accessing the wonders of Judaism? It will be a gift to the rest of us, and the discerning itself may well be a gift to ourselves.

You can email me: jim@bajcvermont.org or submit your thoughts anonymously online.

B'shalom,
Jim