Vayakhel/Pekudei

This weeks portions begin with the word Vyakhel. Assembled. We gathered together. Moses, gathered the community. Here begins a tradition we follow to this day. We assembled in Vayakhel as a community.

We live in a time where we can hire the services of anyone or anything we need to fill a gap. Instead of investing in synagogue dues, we have the ability to just rent a Rabbi for our weddings or even our funerals.

We are seeing declining synagogue membership fuelled by outdated models where the never-ending cycle of repetition does not offer enough creativity, flexibility or inspiration. Is there relevance of community life in a world where increasing numbers of families simply opt out due to lack of interest?

We all know that without growth and movement, we become stagnant and sterile and it is up to us to find a way to re-imagine our communities and teach them to show their worth. A community synagogue is a jack of all trades. It is there at the most important times of our lives, to celebrate a birth, bar mitzvah, wedding, death. The random committees that want you to volunteer your time become relevant when you are sick and the “chicken-soup group” bring your family food. The Religious School is there for our children reinforcing the Judaism they learn at home and helping prepare them for their Bnai Mitzvah. The support systems in place in our synagogues, are never more visible than when we need them.

Yet community life is changing. People striving for more are learning how our Jewish values are not outdated. Interpretation of our traditional prayers to show their relevance to modern day life allows us a form of meditation in a world where we are bombarded with constant noise, demands and chaos.

As the disparity in wealth becomes more blatant, living in a bubble of self-importance and irrelevance is becoming less appealing. People are seeking out meaningful social action projects that engage us with changing the world around us. Working with others, for the benefit of others, we can find meaning, and practice our Judaism in exciting ways. Repairing the world as a community through the strength of numbers is a spiritual and empowering experience.

Synagogues fill three distinct roles in our lives, a place of prayer, a place of gathering and a place of learning. And along with all other memberships we may have, the more you use it, the more valuable an investment it becomes. Our temples, once thought of primarily as a place of prayer, are now showing creativity in their teaching. To learn and live Jewish values every day is to enhance one’s life.

With the new take on spirituality and its individual relevance, communities are seeking to engage with us. Prayer is both a personal and communal activity. Most of our official prayers use the term “we” and that alone shows how important the community is in Judaism. We belong to something greater than our individual families, we are motivated by the need to connect to others. We are praying not just for ourselves but for the good and welfare of the community as a whole, along with the wider world.

Belonging to a community regardless of the level of observance, fills a gaping need in our lives. We can call it a temple, synagogue or shul but it doesn’t really matter. To gain this sense of belonging, we join a house of worship. Traditionally it was because it’s what our parents did, or maybe, because we need to have membership in order to belong to the burial fund. The reasons we used to join are prosaic, nowadays we are looking for a reasons not to abandon the tradition of membership.

Joining a community is one of the most powerful actions we can take for the continuity of our culture and the future of our faith. Yet this does not mean we have to commit to the traditional synagogues of old. We need a community and today we are fortunate to have many options to find the tribe that is right for us.

And together, we become a Kahal.