Bet Mishpachah D'rash: Rosh Hoshana Morning 5764

<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" LINK="#000000" VLINK="#000000" ALINK="#000000"> <CENTER><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=20% VALIGN="TOP"> <A NAME="top"> <P> <B><a href="http://betmish.org/text/rh5764drash.html">Text-Only Version</a></B> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/index.html">Home</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/whatsnew.html">What's New</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/calendar.html#July8">Coming Events</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/drashot.html">D'rashot</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/do.html">What We Do</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/who.html">Who We Are</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/contact.html">Contact Us</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/archives.html">Archives</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/links.html">Links</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/member.html">Membership</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/credits.html">Credits</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/addbook.html">Guest book</A></B></BIG> </FONT></TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="80%> <CENTER>    <table border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td align="center"> <a href="http://betmish.org/index.html" target="_top"><IMG border=0 src="http://betmish.org/images/banner2.gif" align=center height="104" width="512" hspace=5 alt="Bet Mishpachah banner"></a> </td> <td align="left"> <font size="-5"><a href="http://betmish.org/child/descriptions/banner.html">Banner<br>Description</a></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"> <p><font size="-1"><i>Washington, DC's Egalitarian Synagogue</i><br> <i>Embracing a Diversity of Sexual and Gender Identities</i></font> </p> <p> <b><font face="Arial"><font size="+1">Rabbi Bob Saks<br> </font></font></b><br> <font face="Arial"><font size="-1"><i>Founded in 1975 by Members of the GLBT Community<font color="white" size="-4"> </font></i></font></font></p> </td> <td align="left"> <font size="-4" color="white"> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> <center><h1><span lang="Transliterated Yiddish"><i>Geliebte</i></span> <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>K'hilla</i></span></h1> <P><span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Rosh Hashana</i></span> 5764 <br>Ruth L. Potts <br>©2003</P></center> <P><span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Shabbat Shalom. Hag Samei-ach. Shana Tova.</i></span> Lots of celebrating, but what exactly are we celebrating? Last night we talked about the creation of the world. <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Ha Yom Harat Olam</i></span>. No cake that I know of, but a birthday party nonetheless. This morning, we have focused on the creation of the Jewish People. From the travels of Abraham and Sarah which we read about earlier in this service, <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>mei-artz'cha, u-mi-molad'cha, u-mi-beit avicha el ha-aretz asher ar-echa</i></span>, "from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house to a land I will show you", to their descendants descent to the narrow place of <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Mitzrayim to the return trip t</i></span>hrough the Sea of Reeds culminating in the drama at Sinai, our ancestors journeyed physically and spiritually on their way to The Promised Land. And we honor and celebrate that journey this morning, the journey to becoming <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Am Yisrael</i></span>, the People of Israel, and perhaps more importantly, <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Klal Yisrael</i></span>, the Community of Israel.</P> <P>The Children of Israel may have been given the Ten Commandments at Sinai, but learning to live by them required a period of adjustment. Freedom, even with laws, does not automatically produce a unified, cohesive people, as we have seen most recently in Iraq. It took forty years for the generation raised in Egypt to die out or transition to a new way of life. It was only a new generation, one that did not know slavery, nor the leeks and onions, who could cross the Jordan River. They knew the history. They had heard the stories, but they had not had the experience. That allowed them the space to see the promise of a new land in the context of slavery, but not limited by it. They embraced the covenant, as an entire community, and followed Joshua to the Land promised to Abraham. But after settling the land of Canaan, it took only one generation after the death of Joshua for the Israelites to stray from that covenant. As we read in Judges Chapter 2, <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>V'ya-kam dor acheir achareihem asher lo yad-u et Adonai v'gam ha-ma-aseh asher asa l'yisrael</i></span>. "And another generation arose after them which did not know <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Adonai</i></span> nor the works God had done for Israel". Sounds very much like, "There arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph." </P> <P>Well, it works both ways. Sometimes it's about us and sometimes it about the other guy. Either way, new generations often stray from the path of their predecessors. Is that organizational growth or loss of focus? Progress or perversion? Clearly in the case of the Israelites, it was loss of focus. Throughout the Book of Judges, we read of the Israelites straying from God's commandments, assimilating to the Canaanite ways, forgetting the teachings of Torah and then being trounced by their neighbors. Only when they return to <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Torat Moshe</i></span>, the Teaching of Moses, do they live in peace, and then, only until they again do what is offensive to <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Adonai</i></span>. It is not until the reigns of David and Solomon that the Israelites become a unified community, a <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>k'hilla</i></span>.</P> <P>So what is it that makes a <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>k'hilla</i></span>, a community? How do we define community? It just so happens that a couple of weeks ago, I was having that very discussion with the first grade at Aleph Bet Jewish Day School in Annapolis. They were about to embark on a social studies unit on communities and we were trying to come up with a definition of community. If you were in first grade, how would you define community? Jenna's definition was the most succinct. It's a group of people that gets together to do stuff. That simple. But most of us are no longer in first grade and we know the world isn't that simple. Organizations aren't that simple. So as grownups, how do we define community? </P> <P>When I spoke at this service five years ago, I also talked about what makes a group a community. What I said at that time was, "We're joined together by a common interest, an agreed purpose, a mutual responsibility and shared memories. Some of those memories may be happy, others not, but we have provided support for each other regardless. Just as a <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>minyan</i></span> creates support for individuals to come together to pray, to celebrate special events and holidays, the <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>minyan</i></span> also is required to say <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>kaddish</i></span>. The mourning process takes place within the community. Sorrow, no less than joy is a communal responsibility." The issue of communal responsibility, looking out for one another, seems all the more pertinent this year in the wake, in some places literally, of Hurricane Isabel. In places devastated by storm surge and downed power lines, adversity united people. Neighbors in Dundalk ran extension cords across the street when the other side of the street still had no power. A woman in North Beach, when the Chesapeake had moved a block and a half inland and there wouldn't be power for days, went searching for an evacuated neighbor's pets in the middle of the night. And closer to home for me, one of the families at Aleph Bet was totally flooded out - house, car, everything, all totaled. Their insurance will cover the house and the car, but not the contents. The PTO at school has engineered a fundraising campaign to help this family recover. Not only do we hope to ease the loss this member of our community has suffered, we also hope to teach our children, and their parents, what it means to be part of a community, what it means to be part of the Aleph Bet family.</P> <P>What does it mean to be part of this community, this family, this <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>beit mishpacha</i></span>? As we embark on a new year, celebrating the creation of this congregation, this <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>k'hilla</i></span>, 28 years ago, perhaps it's time to re-examine just what it is that makes <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Bet Mishpachah</i></span> a community. Just as the Hebrews were a mixed multitude coming out of Egypt, so was/is this assembly a diversity of traditions and experiences, ages and identities all brought together in a unique way, "a rainbow of affections and sexualities". It is one of the beauties of this congregation and distinguishes it from many other congregations that were founded on the basis of affiliation or trade or geography. </P> <P>Did the folks who founded this congregation in 1975 have a clue as to what we'd look like in 2003? Did those who incorporated the organization and drafted bylaws know how we'd grow? Could they have possibly predicted the acceptance we <span lang="Transliterated Yiddish"><i>geliebte</i></span> Jews have won in the wider Jewish community? The world was a different place in 1975, but just as <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Torah</i></span> has continued to guide us across many generations, so has the basic structure and mission of this organization. If we look at those organizing documents, updated slightly to be more inclusive, we can get a definition of who we are. From the Statement of Purpose as set forth in the bylaws:</P> <blockquote><P> The purpose of <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Bet Mishpachah</i></span> (also referred to as "the Congregation") shall be to provide a comfortable religious, cultural, and social atmosphere for Jewish gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people, and their friends, families, and allies, in the greater Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area. To do this we must support Jewish tradition, follow the spirit of the Torah, and be a positive vehicle for Jewish religious and cultural expression through regular services and social events.</P></blockquote> <P>Note the order of characteristics describing our purpose - religious, cultural, and social. "Religious" comes first. Does this sound at all familiar? Didn't we just hear how the observance of <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Shabbat</i></span> and adherence to the covenant gather us into God? <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Tachat confei ha-shechina</i></span>, under the wings of the <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Shechina.</i></span> In the <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>haftara</i></span> Jocelyn just read, the prophet teaches,"Preserve justice and do what is right." Happy is the person who elevates <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Shabbat</i></span> from the ordinary. What the <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>haftara</i></span> teaches as individual behavior is our mission as an organization. From the Greek for assembly, a synagogue is "a local assembly of Jews organized chiefly for public worship", as defined in Webster's Third International. As stated in the congregational policies, "Bet<span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i> Mishpachah</i></span> is first and foremost a synagogue." So our primary responsibility is to provide comfortable public worship. I think the services we provide are comfortable, even if at times challenging. But do we still think that providing religious services is our primary responsibility? I know those of us involved in scheduling, staffing, training and composing liturgy do, but how does the rest of the community perceive its role?</P> <P>As I mentioned earlier, organizations have an evolution. Growth or loss of focus? Progress or perversion? This dilemma isn't limited to organizations. Modern social/political movements have encountered the same situation, whether the Labor Movement, the Women's Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, or the Gay Rights Movement. The founders work hard for their cause; they achieve a measure of success, changing institutions sufficiently that the successive generations take for granted the new reality and no longer feel a need for the movement that created their comfort. The movements lose membership and energy. They may even fizzle out unless the leaders vigilantly maintain their focus. Too often, the next generation does not have the motivation to carry on because they've never known a different reality. In the last 15 months, we have reached two milestones for which the underlying progress is at risk. Many of us celebrated the 30<SUP>th</SUP> anniversaries of Title IX and Roe v. Wade. But to many of those who have never lived without these two protections, the events went by unnoticed. I was appalled that Sports Illustrated for Women, which would not have even been a concept without Title IX, did not even acknowledge the date. Both measures are currently under scrutiny and I don't know if there is enough support from those too young to have fought for those rights to preserve them. </P> <P>On the other hand, what of the increasing acceptance, even solicitation, of GLBT families at "mainstream" congregations? Five congregations in addition to Bet Mish are listed in the Blade's weekly religious calendar and at least one more advertised its High HolyDay children's services in last week's issue. The Supreme Court has struck down the Texas "Homosexual Conduct Law" in Lawrence & Garner v. Texas. Presidential candidates are evaluated on their positions on gay marriage in more media than just the gay press. In this kind of environment, what is the role of GLBT shuls? Are twenty-somethings so comfortable being out that attending a primarily gay synagogue is like being in the closet to them? Now that we've gotten to where we thought we wanted to be are we sure we want to be here?</P> <P>If there is still a need/desire for <span lang="Transliterated Yiddish"><i>geliebte</i></span> Jewish institutions, how do we maintain a vibrant organization over an extended period of time? How do we keep up with the competition? With my organizational development <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>kippa</i></span> on, I'd say the organization must change with the changing needs of its membership. But with a different <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>kippa on, my answer wo</i></span>uld be, the mission of this organization is "x". If you don't like it, go somewhere else and form your own organization. For this organization, this <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>mishpacha</i></span>, we need to do both. We need to be relevant, welcoming to the"next generation"within the framework of our mission. We need to be what those other synagogues can never be. We are first and foremost a <span lang="Transliterated Yiddish"><i>geliebte</i></span> synagogue. What that synagogue looks like is up to you. If you want Friday night services to be different, join the Religious Affairs Committee or participate in Service Leader Development and lead your own service. If social justice is what connects you to Judaism, chair the Social Action Committee. If you want more social events join the Social Activities Committee. Provide support to other members of our community through <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Bikkur Cholim</i></span> or Bereavement Support. If your skills are in communication, work on the newsletter, handle publicity or share your experiences with other organizations through the Speakers Bureau. Take an active role in the life of this congregation. That's what will insure its vitality. That's what will reaffirm our mission.</P> <P>This <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Rosh HaShana</i></span>, as we celebrate the Birthday of the World and the formation of the Jewish People, make this <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>k'hilla</i></span>, this community part of your <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>mishpacha</i></span>, your family. In this new year, follow the spirit of the <span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Torah</i></span> by preserving justice and doing what is right; look out for one another; and be part of a group, a <span lang="Transliterated Yiddish"><i>geliebte</i></span> group, that does stuff together. </P> <P><span lang="Transliterated Hebrew"><i>Shana Tova u-m'tuka</i></span>.</P> <P>Note: Larry Neff came up with the idea of pronouncing GLBT as the Yiddish word <span lang="Transliterated Yiddish"><i>Geliebte</i></span>, which means "beloved."</P> </TD></TR></TABLE></CENTER> <P><HR> <p align="center"><FONT face=Arial><small><small><b>For a description of any of the graphics on this page, click on the D next to the graphic. <BR>For more information, contact our office at <a href="mailto:office@betmishpachah.org?SUBJECT=Request for Information from Web Site">office@betmishpachah.org</a><br> Send comments about this site to <a href="mailto:webweaver@betmishpachah.org?SUBJECT=Comments About Web Site">webweaver@betmishpachah.org</a>.<br> Copyright 1996 - 2008 Bet Mishpachah.</b></small></small></FONT> <CENTER><font face=Arial size="-1" color="#999999"><small><small><P><b>This page last modified on Sunday, November 30, 2003 at 06:35 PM EST.</b></small></small></font> </CENTER> </body>