President s Appeal 5778 David A. Farbman

Transcription

1 President s Appeal 5778 David A. Farbman September 21, 2017 Shana tova. Thank you to Rabbi Perkins, Cantor Gloth and our talented slate of lay daveners and Torah readers who make our services so meaningful. I m honored to be able to address you today for a few moments about Temple Aliyah and the splendid community that we are. I do apologize that I m not delivering these remarks myself or that I cannot be with you today. As many of you know, my dear wife Karen who has taken to calling herself FLOTA or First Lady of Temple Aliyah suffered a stroke last week. She is recovering now in the hospital, recently transferred out of the ICU and my family and I are [NOTE: ADUST TEXT IF KIDS THERE] listening now to this service with Karen via our livestream. A huge thank you to Bruce Berns, past president extraordinaire, for standing in for me the whole day on the bimah. In light of this situation, the thoughts I want to share with you today are considerably briefer than I had originally intended. (It s ok. You re allowed to heave a sigh of relief.) So, rather than speak about the many, many programs and events going on at our shul and the many, many opportunities for engagement in Jewish life, I want to highlight just three new arrivals to Temple Aliyah and let them stand as exemplars of who we are as a community and why the mutual support of our community is so vital. The first new to the Aliyah scene is called the Mental Health Initiative, where a passionate committee of TA mental health professionals, led by Bonnie Gold, is creating a fresh set of programming rooted in a simple, but profound message. Temple Aliyah can be indeed should be that place where those experiencing the pain and stigma of family members or friends who are suffering from mental illness (or other challenges to their well being) can find some modicum of consolation by joining 1

2 together and being supported by our temple community. Among its signature efforts, the Mental Health Initiative will be convening regular healing services the first of which will be Sunday afternoon, October 22 to furnish the physical and emotional space for our congregants to draw comfort from words and music and prayer. And, most of all, to gain strength from each other, knowing that all those in the room with you, understand and empathize. Of course, such gatherings cannot and do not pretend to solve the underlying causes of suffering, but the Mental Health Initiative is set up to emphasize that isolation from our loving community should not be an option. In fact, the committee will soon be sending out a survey to the congregation where anyone who wants can indicate the particulars of the kind of support they might like. While we are in the early stages of this programming and we know that there is much work to be done, the Mental Health Initiative ultimately says we are here for you; let us help how we can. The second arrival is actually not a what, but a who : Cantor Jamie Gloth. Since joining our Temple Aliyah family as full-time clergy in July, Cantor Gloth has already made his presence known as an inspirational leader of our services. I m presuming that you feel as I do when hearing him daven his very soul flows through the music. His passion for Jewish liturgy and for the experience of coming together as a prayer community elevates us all. But our services are just one place where he shapes our shul. Cantor Gloth has also quickly become an invaluable educational resource both for adult ed and in our Mercaz Aliyah. He is a font of ideas for innovative programs and demonstrates a keen instinct for how to make Judaism a source not just for learning, but for fun. Perhaps most important, Cantor Gloth is a compassionate listener and all-around mensch. When the search committee first met Cantor Gloth, we knew instantly that he would be a perfect fit for Temple Aliyah, not because of his musical skills or programming chops, as impressive as those are, but because of who he is as a person. Together with his wife Bina Carr and their children Avi, Michah, Jacob and Naomi, Cantor Gloth animates our values of love and caring for one another. 2

3 The final arrival is only virtual, but it represents in a most concrete way the essence of the Temple Aliyah community. You may have seen a poster in the lobby or recall seeing in congregational e- mails the mention of Aliyah Assist. Aliyah Assist is essentially a jobs board for our members to post volunteer opportunities for where help is needed within the congregation, and for congregants, in turn, to respond to those solicitations for assistance. The types of opportunities include a broad range from helping out with social action projects to organizing a program at the synagogue to serving on an ad hoc or standing committee. I encourage all to check it out on our website after yontif and to use it continuously throughout the coming weeks and years. This new tool a brainchild of our kehillah committee is so much more than a convenient way of organizing the ebb and flow of volunteer tasks and responsibilities, however. It is a compelling symbol of our commitment to our fellow Aliyahniks, of our shared understanding that our worth as individuals takes shape through helping one another. You might say that the desire the yearning to locate ways where we can contribute to the greater good is so powerful here that we actually had to develop a technological solution to channel that energy. And speaking of contributions, I wouldn t be doing my job as your synagogue president if I did not at least mention the fact that our synagogue is not just a village of devoted and talented and warm people, it is also an organization that relies on professionals, and heat and light, and copious amounts of food, and books, and so many other things to maintain and grow itself. We do not run our annual appeal just for fun. Absent the funds that we raise through your generous donations, our synagogue would simply be unable to function in the beautiful ways that it does today, and, certainly we would not be able to build on our current successes. One closing thought. I work in the field of education research and, several years ago, wrote a report on arts education. In the course of writing, I discovered that practitioners and researchers in arts education describe two fundamental reasons to deliver quality arts programming to children. On the 3

4 one hand, the arts bring instrumental benefits to those participating. In other words, engaging in dance or theater or painting or music helps children develop transferable skills that will be helpful in other areas of their lives. For example, giving children dance lessons is good for increasing their physical stamina and flexibility or teaching them music theory and how to play an instrument can sometimes translate into more finely tuned mathematical thinking. The arts, that is, can be useful in broadening our capacity to do other things better. On the other hand, arts education also is imbued with intrinsic value. Interaction with, and appreciation of, the arts can sharpen and nuance our sense of empathy and beauty, the arts can captivate our minds and enliven our spirits. Children act on stage or sing in a choir or draw a picture for the sheer joy that emerges from engaging in these deeply human activities. We do these things purely for their own sake. So it is with synagogue life. There is no doubt that being a member of a synagogue generally, and Temple Aliyah specifically, brings certain tangible benefits. We hold our b nei mitzvah celebrations here; we convene our daily minyan for those saying kaddish; we rely on our exceptional clergy to help us through tough times or to teach us in the ways of Judaism; we have built our Gan Aliyah and Mercaz Aliyah to give our members with children a caring and vibrant Jewish educational experience. And these tangible benefits are somewhat transactional in nature. We pay real dollars for these services and programs to exist with the expectation that they will satisfy our needs. But then there are the intangibles, the opportunities that Temple Aliyah affords that cannot possibly be measured in dollars or outputs. How could we gauge the real value of convening a healing service to comfort those in need? How can we assess the spiritual uplift of singing the prayers of the Friday evening service or learning with peers in adult education classes? How can we put a price on the lasting friendships that we develop in these walls or, as I and my children have experienced so urgently this last week, the overwhelming and unconditional support we give to one another? We cannot. 4

5 Instead, these represent the intrinsic value of belonging to and investing in our community. They give our lives meaning and purpose. They transmute the fragility of being human into a celebration of life. They enrich who we are and shape who we will become. Quite simply, the community sustains us and so, my fellow congregants, we must sustain it. On behalf of the board and my family, I am delighted to be able to wish you a Shana tova u m tukah. May you all have a happy, healthy and sweet new year. 5