Rabbi Stephen Weiss
Rosh Hashanah 2013
If we genuinely desired to be a synagogue of relationships, a place to see the face of God, then there was more work to do.
At Sinai God tells Moses that “No man can see me and live,” and yet at the end of the Torah we are told there was never a prophet like Moses, who saw God panim-el-panim, face to face. How do we reconcile these two passages? Rabbi Salomon Gruenwald suggests that “perhaps Moses never saw the unmediated face of God in one single instance, but Moses certainly knew God through the faces of the people of Israel. For 40 years, he led us through the wilderness, heard our complaints, tended to our needs, taught us to love one another and God… For 40 years he counted us one-by-one, looked each one of us panim-el-panim, face-to-face, and saw in each of us some tiny aspect of God’s presence. By the end of his life, Moses certainly had seen God panim-el-panim.” Rabbi Arthur Green teaches, “To be a religious Jew is to walk the tightrope between knowing the invisibility of God and “seeing the face of God everywhere.”
To see the face of God everywhere. That is the ultimate task facing us as Jews. To see the image of God in every person, to help make manifest the presence of God in every moment. And nowhere is that task more sacred – and more urgent – than right here in the synagogue. The synagogue should be a place of refuge from the turmoil and the cold hustle and bustle of the outside world, a place where we know we will be seen and appreciated as holy, where we matter, where we feel connected, valued and supported. Synagogue should be the one place we feel most comfortable and welcome. It should feel like home.
In his book, The Spiritualty of Welcoming, Dr. Ron Wolfson, guru of 21st century synagogue transformation, asks, How can our congregations be sacred communities “where a spirituality of welcoming permeates the physical space and all those who walk in its doors?”
Ron presents a new vision for the synagogue of the 21st century. He sees the synagogue as the spiritual center of people’s lives. A “kehillah kedoshah – a sacred community” where relationships are paramount, where worship is engaging, where everyone is learning, where repair of the world is a moral imperative, where healing is offered, and where personal and institutional transformation is embraced.” He goes on to say that “the twenty first century synagogue must be a gateway of welcome for those who seek a spiritual community. When people interact with the institution, they should encounter a culture characterized by an understanding that every human being… is a b’tzelem Elohim – is a person created in the image of God. When congregations take this charge seriously, every interaction with members and potential members is looked upon as an opportunity to create a unique, special, holy, sacred community.” “This,” he writes, “is the first step in creating a synagogue of relationships.”
Such a synagogue would be “a living place where the culture of the entire community would reflect an ambiance of welcome, a place not just where everyone knew your name, but a place where everyone was treated as an ‘Image of God,’ living within a culture of honor. It would be a place where the building itself said, ‘Welcome!’ and where the people who serve as professional and lay leaders truly served others with uncommon grace, courtesy and compassion. It would be a place where the worship experience was dynamic and moving, where everyone was encouraged to study, where everyone was committed to repairing the world. It would be a place to turn for comfort and support in times of trouble. It would be a place that embraced the possibilities of change, a community unafraid to experiment, even to take risks. It would be a place of deep partnership between the clergy and the laity. It would be a high place, a place to stand on the summit, always looking into the future, hoping to enter the Promised Land.”
Ron visited us several years ago as our Weingold Guest Scholar. He praised us for the heymishness of our congregation, noting the warmth and caring he felt from clergy, staff, lay leadership and members. At the same time, Ron challenged us to do more.
In his book, Ron identifies several keys to making a synagogue more welcoming. Among these are:
- Learning to practice what he calls “radical hospitality” which both engages in outreach to make those who are new feel comfortable and also in-reach to deepen the connections and the sense of belonging of those who are already regulars.
- Being non-judgemental, accepting all who seek our community as they are, always embracing them with love, regardless of differences and shortcomings.
- Following the example of successful businesses like Disney in seeking to give personal attention, anticipating needs and exceeding expectations.
- Providing people to greet, welcome and assist at every turn, and signage that makes it easy to navigate.
- And creating a physical space that is warm and inviting, and that helps bring people together and create a sense of community.
Ron especially took us to task on these last two points: signage and a welcoming environment. He took us on a walk-through of our campus through the eyes of a first timer. He started at the parking lot and entered the Linden courtyard. Where can I sit? How can I stand here and socialize if cars are driving through? Where is the front door?
Then we entered the building. He pointed out that the Gross Atrium is a beautiful space to hold Kiddush or a program. But he asked about the other times, when you walk into a large empty hall. How do you know where to go? There are no directional signs and no one to greet you. Where is the sanctuary? Where are the bathrooms? The Gross Atrium during the week, he said, is a place to transit on the way to somewhere else. What if instead Gross Atrium was a destination, a place to sit and have a cup of coffee, read or work? And what if other members or clergy could stop by? What kind of interactions might take place? What opportunities for study and mitzvot? The Atrium, he said, should be the hub of our community.
Ron’s vision caught fire here with those who heard him speak and read his book, and the buzz about his presentations continued long after he was gone. There was a deep sense of pride in the warm caring nature of our synagogue, and pride too in our campus, with its unusual decentralized design, courtyards and community spaces that helped create the strong sense of community that defines us. But we knew nonetheless that Ron was right. If we genuinely desired to be a synagogue of relationships, a place to see the face of God, then there was more work to do.
Its no surprise, then, that Ron’s vision found its way into our congregation’s most recent strategic plan. The plan calls for creating a more personalized approach to helping members feel welcomed and integrated into the B’nai Jeshurun community. It calls increased use of greeters, streamlining interactions with the office, one on one outreach by leadership and staff to get to know members better and understand their needs, and more experiences like Shabbat lunches and home hospitality that help build connection and community.
It also addresses head on the challenge of creating more welcoming physical spaces that have appropriate signage and that create a warm environment that encourages community.
The Linden Family Courtyard renovation is the first step in addressing the latter issues. The new courtyard will be a warm and inviting space that makes you feel welcome and draws you into the synagogue. It will feature a fountain in the form of a river, graced on one side by the words from psalms, “And the river turned back in its course,” a reference to the exodus, and on the other side by the words of the prophet: “Let justice roll down like a mighty stream,” a reminder of our call to Tikkun Olam. The plaza will have high canopy trees, benches for relaxing, a new outdoor sculpture/meditation garden and a reconstructed chapel at ground level to provide easy accessibility and to eliminate any barrier between clergy and congregation. A sign at the entrance will welcome you to our home. This will be a place for prayer, programs, classes and concerts, a place to gather, to sit and read, or meditate, or talk; a place to connect to others in sacred community. It will be a setting that will embrace you and welcome you from the moment you enter.
In the same way, in the next project, the Gross Atrium will also become a place that will draw you in, a destination in and of itself. As you walk in, you will be met not by open spaces but by a welcome center where someone greets you with a smile, asks you how you are, and offers assistance, making sure you find what you need. A kiosk will feature a map showing you how to find your way around the synagogue and new signage at every turn will help point you along the way to wherever you want to go. There will be groupings of couches, comfy chairs, low tables and plants, so people will stay to read, study, work and socialize. And while they are there they will be able to grab a cup of coffee and a treat. The goal is to make the atrium so inviting that it is your first stop of choice – even before Starbucks or Peet’s – whether you are picking up, dropping off, attending a program or meeting, or just looking for a place to grab a cup of Joe and work, play, relax, socialize, meet, and most importantly, connect. Why? Because the more we are here together, the more we can build our sense of community.
Our leadership and many of our members have already been hard at work trying to raise the bar in terms of being welcoming. Some of their efforts are already visible in the increased number of greeters, all of whom went through special training for the first time, as well as in new initiatives undertaken by our membership committee, and other changes being made to make the synagogue easier to navigate. Our prayer, mitzvah projects, learning and programs will focus more on experiences that build community. But the truth is that the individuals with the greatest ability to make our congregation warmer and friendlier is each of you. Each of us must play our part if we are to succeed in transforming our Courtyard and Atrium into spaces that build community. And each of us must play our part by being that community. By volunteering to help with the changes that are afoot, and by reaching out personally to other members of our community we do not know, inviting them into our lives.
We have an opportunity to transform ourselves into a 21st century synagogue, a synagogue of relationship. A place of learning, of repairing the world, of prayer and healing and celebration. A place of connection. We have the opportunity to deepen the bonds between us so we can lift each other up. All we have to do, is look into each other’s eyes, and see the face of God. I hope that you will join us in his effort, and watch the magic unfold.