We are looking forward to seeing many of you for the Rosh Hashanah in one week from today!
If you know someone who wants to join us for the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah or our community Yizkor, please have them call the office this week (732) 531-4410. Also, if you are planning on coming to our Tashlikh by the beach followed by services on the second night of Rosh Hashanah, please call the office to RVSP in the next few days. All of the details for these programs and others can be found on our new website! (A very big thank you to Howard Lang for all of his work on this project!)
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Here are two postings to get you thinking about the upcoming Holidays. As they are still on my mind, the first is a fun and inspirational video from the Macabbeats. We had a wonderful event yesterday! Thank you to everyone who helped to make it happen!
2. The second is an interesting article about decorum in Synagogue and ways to make services more lively and engaging. It was written by Chancellor Arnold Eisen of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Below is an excerpt. To read the complete article, please click on the title.
Since several million Jews are about to spend a great deal of time in synagogue-the High Holidays are almost upon us, to be followed immediately by Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah-I think there is good reason to ask whether something could or should be done to alter the atmosphere in a shul in the ways that Dare wants to change it at the concert hall. I vote yes for two principal reasons.
One: Jewish religious leaders desperately need to make the experience of communal prayer much more relevant to many more people…. Participatory services are more popular than services in which the congregation sits quietly for the most part, watching the rabbi and hazzan perform the work of worship up on the bimah.
Two: Tefillah was never meant to be a spectator sport, and by nature is the very opposite of a passive activity drained of emotion….. The tefillot we utter are meant to move us. At times the movement within has a chance to find expression in movement of the body-we bow, dance, sway, or parade around the synagogue. At other times, we keep what is inside bottled up, not wanting to reveal the turmoil….
Silence is sometimes the best vehicle through which we summon courage to face up to life or to death, but not always. The point is to be fully present before ourselves, one another, and God. Noise can help….
I would not want to lose the moments when the congregation follows along quietly as the Torah is chanted, or listens attentively to a sermon or teaching, or permits itself to be transported by the prayers of the hazzan….
But, let’s not lose the proper balance between quiet and noise, receptivity and participation. The rabbi will forgive you for talking to the person beside you if the point is to check in, offer support, get the news. The hazzan will not only forgive you, but thank you for singing or humming along, filling the sanctuary with the collective murmur of “davening” during silent prayer, or adding to the sense of life and movement in the synagogue…
I’d trade decorous silence for more noise in synagogue any day, and especially on the High Holidays. Let’s put our hearts into our davening, and strengthen each other with our song.
I look forward to seeing you, and “hearing you” over the Holidays! May you and your family a Shanah Tova U’metukah– a sweet and good New Year filled with health and happiness. My next Monday Morning Message will appear on Monday, September 24th.