Sh'liach Tzibur's Page

In this section
   This Month
   Archive

May 2006

I continue to be so delighted with the many reflections of BAJC community spirit as we begin to settle into our new home at Greenleaf. Last month, I wrote about the ways in which this has been in evidence in our worship services. In this column I'd like to focus on ways in which this spirit manifests itself in fresh thinking and new initiatives.

It seems that wherever we look, our community members are working together in innovative ways. One group of us is working together to plan our Yom HaShoah commemoration with special emphasis on music from different generations. Another group of us, under the able leadership of Linda, and with no fewer than five subcommittees (!) is planning our Greenleaf Dedication scheduled for the weekend of August 25. Inspired by Susan's adult education class on Women in Judaism (our adult ed offerings continue to grow exponentially), the congregation's first Women's Seder was held just prior to the beginning of Passover. Still another group is busy at work on the organization of a Mother's Day peace and justice activity, being planned jointly with other Brattleboro congregations.

Jim Levinson, Sh'liach Tzibur, and immediate past president of BAJC, Rachel Prabhakar
 

Meanwhile, we have a mother-son team studying Torah trope together and planning to do Torah reading at a service in May—and a recent Bar Mitzvah preparing a Haftarah for another of our services. Julie and Faith put in place a user-friendly system to link up people looking for seders with those having room at their tables. There's a group involved with the artistic decoration of our space (what fabulous gifts we've been receiving!), another with Greenleaf planting and landscaping, and yet another completing preparations for an adult Bat Mitzvah.

And imagine this: Congregants have stepped forward to plan Shabbat Torah study not simply on the 4th Saturday of each month as has been the case, but on every Shabbat morning when we don't have a service. How much healthier is this than the traditional (and tired) congregational model of planning events and then trying to drum up attendance?

It's as if this physical move has unleashed our collective psyche—our creativity, energy and community-building impulses. In sum, it makes this surely the most exciting period in the double-chai year history of our congregation. It also is a fulfillment of Rachel Prabhakar's vision of "seeds"—group-led initiatives that would constitute a far more effective recovenanting than any number of revised missions statements. Mazal Tov to us all.

B’Shalom,

Jim