2017-Yom Kippur Appeal

Transcription

1 2017-Yom Kippur Appeal September 28, 2017 Once a king announced he would be visiting a poor town in his realm. The townspeople decided to present the king with a gift of a giant barrel filled with wine. To get the wine they needed, they came up with a brilliant idea--each family in the town would bring one flask filled with wine and pour it into the giant barrel. So they placed the barrel in the center of the town with a ladder reaching to the top and everyday townspeople would line up to pour their flask of wine into the barrel. The day of the king s visit finally arrived and the townspeople were excited to present the king with their gift. However, when the king poured himself a glass from the barrel he grimaced, obviously displeased. When asked why he was so unhappy he responded, It s just plain water. It turns out that each family thought to themselves why should I be the one to pour in a flask of wine. No one will notice if there is just one flask of water among all that wine. Sadly, however, everyone in the town made the same calculation. Everyone was relying on someone else. Last year I stood before you and delivered the traditional Yom Kippur Appeal. I thought I had made a compelling case for your support of TST. I talked about the purpose and mission of Shaaray Tefila and the important role TST plays in the lives of our families from our children to our parents and grandparents. I spoke about how your voluntary donations are essential to allow TST to continue to fulfill that mission. I was sure you heard me. But it turned out many of you didn t. Last year only 117 of you responded to this appeal with a donation. That s 117

2 families out of 834. Thanks to those families, however, we raised $87,000. Sadly, like those villagers, we thought someone else would bring the wine. Let me remind you of Temple Shaaray Teflia s fundamental mission and what it means to everyone here. TST is the place we turn to practice our Judaism. We are blessed to have three spiritual rabbis led by Rabbi Greenberg to educate us, comfort us and help us mark all of life s happy events, from births to B nai Mitzvahs to weddings. Our rabbis are also here for us when we are ill or mourning the passing of a loved one. In good times and bad Temple Shaaray Tefila is here as a place to pray and to provide comfort. On these, our most important holidays, our three rabbis enable us to offer separate services for families with differing needs. TST is also the place that ensures that our traditions are handed down from one generation to the next. It s where we educate our children and instill in them our Jewish history, values and traditions. Our early childhood program and religious school is thriving and vibrant, and together they serve over 500 students. We have an outstanding group of educators and a program that strives to be flexible to meet the competing demands upon our children s time. Our youth program is designed to provide them with experiences that will last a lifetime from our Nicaragua trips to midnight runs, and to instill in them the Jewish value of Tikun Olum. In all phases of life Shaaray Teflia is here to provide support. Our Adults at Leisure and Empty Nester Programs are two of our most active and rewarding programs. From movie nights, to lectures with important, interesting speakers to visits to museums we provide important social

3 activities for our seniors and those not tied to their home with homework and other children s activities. And our Caring Community is there for those suffering an illness or loss. We are also an open and diverse community. Our LGBTQ initiative ensures that we are a welcoming place for all congregants regardless of their sexual orientation. And our CONNECT interfaith program provides support to unaffiliated interfaith couples and lets them know they would be welcome at TST. We are also, proudly, a place that is open to anyone regardless of their ability to pay. Lastly there s the work we do to feed the homeless, provide them housing one week during the winter, our blood drives, thanksgiving dinners and Passover Seders for developmentally disabled, our support of worthy causes in Israel, our work keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive and too many other programs to mention. But that s only part of what Shaaray Tefila is about. But you know all of this. You also know that we can t survive without your generosity. Dues and religious school fees only cover approximately 90% of our $4, 000,000 operating budget. That s not unusual. Indeed that s about average for temples our size around the country. Now I know everyone feels that dues and religious school fees are too high. But more importantly, think what this community means to you, your family and our Jewish Community. Think about how much poorer we would all be without it. What sort of Jewish heritage would our children inherit?

4 I think the case is plain that TST is worthy of your support. And all I m really asking is that you place TST on the list of the organizations you support or if it s already there that you move it up in the order of priorities. If you think we don t need the money. I can assure you that is not true. Each year we are forced to dip into the reserves provided by The Campaign for our Future to close our budget gap. (A heartfelt thank you to those families who contributed to that campaign.) That money should be used for major projects as we did this year with the beautification of our main building. But until we find another source of funds it will have to serve both purposes. This year our budget gap is projected to be $160,000. So that s my goal for this appeal. That s $73,000 more than we raised last year. That sounds like a lot, but in reality it s only $200 per family. Research suggests that some of you don t like giving to general operating funds. I understand that. So while we do need unrestricted funds, this year we ve come up with a list of projects for which we need your support. I mentioned on Rosh Hashana that we had done some work to improve our fire safety and security. Much more needs to be done. The cost of installing security cameras and key card entry system for our main building similar to what we have in the religious school building is $15,000. We need $25,000 to replace our antiquated fire alarm system. Many of you have asked us to provide a security guard at Friday night services and other temple programs. The cost of that would be approximately $35,000 per year.

5 The religious school building is overdue for refurbishment. The cost of painting, recarpeting and updating the school building is $75,000 Now that we have a new van, we d like to raise a fund to cover maintenance and provide a part time driver. Cost approx. $15,000 If you would you like to provide support for our wonderful choir, soloists and musicians, that would be $50,000. These are just some of the worthy projects you can support with your donations. Just tell us where you want your funds directed when you send them in. There are so many other reasons you might give. Let me suggest a few. Give to sustain a safe place for Jews to go in trying times. Give to honor your parents and grandparents and to provide a legacy for your children or grandchildren. Give to perpetuate our Jewish values. Give to support our community. Give just because it s the right thing to do. Let us remember that on Yom Kippur we pray for forgiveness for our sins both to the Lord and to our fellow human beings so that we may be inscribed in the book of life. We recited the words, Teshuvah, Tefillah Tzeddakah, Prayer, Repentance and Charity and will temper the judgement s sever decree. Our services provided the opportunity to satisfy two of those mandates as we repented and we prayed. This appeal gives you the opportunity to fulfill the third, Charity, by giving to your temple. Give generously and within your means, but please give. I d like to conclude with a second story: A different village was visited by a group of hungry strangers, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, they asked

6 the villagers if they would share some of their food stores with them, but the villagers were unwilling. So the strangers went to a stream, filled their pot with water, dropped a large stone in it, and placed it over a fire to cook. One of the villagers became curious and asked what the strangers were doing. We re making stone soup, said the stranger, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavor. The villager did not mind parting with a few carrots to help them out, so that was added to the soup. Another villager walked by and hearing the same story handed them some celery. More and more villagers walked by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, the inedible stone was removed from the pot, and a delicious and nourishing pot of soup was enjoyed by all. Let s make this the year we become the village that creates the nourishing pot of soup. May you all be inscribed for a good year.