Communal
Searching for a way to mark a special moment in your community's life? Here you will find articles about rituals, teachings, and blessings to help you enhance these significant moments.
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Joining A Synagogue
Joining for the first time. Moving to a new community. Switching from one synagogue to another. Whatever your reason, becoming a member of a synagogue is a commitment—certainly of money, usually of time and often of emotion. It is literally a defining moment, defining who you are as a Jew and as an individual, as a member of a movement, in a particular community and of the Jewish people.
Meditation:
Compile a list of some or all of the reasons you have joined this particular synagogue. Here are some possibilities:
Services
Prayer
Children’s
Education
Adult Education
Lifecycle events (birth, bar mitzvah, marriage)
Community
Commitment
Socializing
Social Action
Rabbi
As your eyes rest on each reason you’ve listed, imagine the kinds of roles you or your family will take in this new "holy community."
Ritual:
Arrange to deliver in person your first dues (or whatever act or item signals membership in the synagogue). Ask if the rabbi or one of the leaders of the synagogue, volunteer or professional, can be present. Express to them your hopes for what your membership will mean for you and for your family, and what you in turn can bring to the congregation. And right away, volunteer to do something, anything! The best way to feel part of a congregation is to roll your sleeves up and contribute your gifts to keep it vital.
Blessing:
(Rabbi or Synagogue Leader says:)
May the One Who Caused God’s Name to dwell in this house, let dwell among you
love, fellowship, peace and friendship.
(Berachot 12a)
(New Congregant replies:)
Barukh atah she’hechiyanu v’keyemanu v’hegiyanu lazman hazeh.
Blessed are you, Eternal One our God, Sovereign of the universe, Who gave us life, and sustained us in life, and brought us to this moment.
Teaching:
And the Lord said to me, "Assemble the people for Me, and I will let them hear My
words, so that they may learn to hold me in awe as long as they live on the earth, and may
teach their children so."
(Deuteronomy 4:10)
An old joke: A Jewish Robinson Crusoe is discovered on a desert island. His rescuer asks why he built two synagogues. "You see that synagogue?" answers the Jew. "That’s where I pray. And the other one? I wouldn’t set foot in that one!"
Why is this joke funny, and why do Jews tell it about themselves? On the one hand, it pokes fun at the age-old animosity among Jews and Jewish groups who believe or behave differently from one another. On the other hand, it shows a Jew willing to support, however grudgingly, a Jewish institution of which he disapproves.
Which kind of castaway are you?
(CLAL faculty)
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