Dear Friends,
Next Friday night at Beth Sholom we'll take a step in a new direction here at Beth Sholom. I hope you will join us from 5-6 for a potluck dinner, and from 6-7:15(ish) for our last musical service of the year, which will have a Hanukkah and light theme to it.
You might wonder how and why it is that we are now allowing a potluck on Shabbat in the building. Allow me to explain.
When I arrived here three and a half years ago, I was asked about how to build community here at Beth Sholom. There's an old tongue-in-cheek slogan that applies to religious life: "if you feed them, they will come!"
A number of Conservative synagogues have begun to allow potluck meals in their buildings, in order to build community and to give people an opportunity to celebrate Shabbat together, without having to pay the price of a catered meal, which can be prohibitively expensive for a number of people.
And yet, when I arrived here, I was told that the policy was that Beth Sholom potlucks, like our Adopt-A-Shabbat Friday night dinners, could only happen outside of Beth Sholom and that we wouldn't allow potlucks inside the building. Many of you expressed interest in changing that policy, and ritual and board have now approved doing so.
The main reason to avoid allowing potlucks is fear that the synagogue kitchen will accidentally become unkosher if non-kosher food comes in.There is an easy answer to that challenge, which is to make sure the kitchen is locked while the potluck is happening.
Additionally, we already allow people to bring dairy/pareve (ie vegetarian) food into the library/board room during lunch and learn and other meetings. What ritual committee decided was that we would allow ourselves to expand that policy to the social hall as well.
I recognize that this is an experiment, and we may not like it. Creating community is not often an easy task, and there are bound to be people who disagree with changes in policy. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, one of my teachers says that "pluralism is the art of making everyone uncomfortable some of the time." We hope this decision doesn't make anyone too uncomfortable, and we welcome your participation and feedback afterwards. We'll certainly make any needed adjustments. Our goal is to allow us to celebrate Shabbat together as a community.
Here are guidelines we ask all of you to follow:
All food must be dairy or pareve (ie vegetarian). Absolutely no meat is allowed, even if its kosher meat. Please check all ingredients carefully. Where possible, please use ingredients that are certified kosher.
All fish must be kosher (must have fins and scales, no shellfish allowed).
We will provide paper goods and water for people to drink.
The kitchen will be locked - if there is something you need, please ask me and if appropriate I will address it then.
Shabbat starts next week at 4:39 - if cooking your food, please finish cooking before Shabbat begins.
Also, there is an aspect of Jewish law that says that if dishes haven't been used in 24 hours, they don't transfer as much of the flavor of the previous ingredients. As much as possible, we ask you to abide by this. For example, if you want to bring a pot of lentil soup, please don't cook it in the same pot that yesterday you made chicken soup in. From a perspective of Jewish law, the flavor of the previous food lasts for 24 hours. If you can avoid using dishes or utensils that within the last 24 hours had meat in them, we'd appreciate it.
Please bring serving utensils for your dishes, when needed.
We ask you to bring an index card with the ingredients in your dish clearly labelled, along with your name (ex. prepared by Rabbi Ilan or Made by the Cohen family) so that others can inquire if they have specific questions. We ask you to list your ingredients so that those with dietary restrictions and allergies can know what they can eat. Obviously, if you have dietary restrictions, you may wish to bring food you know you can eat.
We'll be rotating who needs to bring which dishes each time.
For the first potluck, if your last name begins with:
A-F, please bring soft drinks, or kosher wine (though not concord).
G-L please bring salads and/or side dishes
M-R please bring main entrees
S-Z please bring dessert.
Again, we will see how this goes. Synagogues that have allowed potlucks have found them a great way to bring people together on Shabbat and other occasions.
We certainly hope it will be fun, and a nice way to celebrate Shabbat and Hanukkah. (Hanukkah candles must be lit before Shabbat candles - feel free to light them at home before coming here, or you may come promptly at 4:30 to light candles here. No candles will be lit after Shabbat begins at 4:39).
I hope these guidelines will help us have a nice time together.
If you have any questions, please reply and i'll do my best to answer them.
In the meantime, we hope to see you in shul tomorrow morning, where we'll have two special guests with us. The Chief Rabbi of Colorado Springs, aka the Senior Rabbi Glazer, aka my dad is here with us, along with Ellen, his wife.
I've invited Dad to share some words of Torah with us tomorrow morning.
Dad and Ellen will also be at the dinner on Sunday night. Please come introduce yourselves to them while they're here for a visit.
Finally, mark your calendars now for a special performance by my friend Hazzan Daniel Kempin, who is a masterful klezmer and yiddish musician from Germany, who will be with us on Sunday, January 8th at 2 p.m. Old Enough to Know Better is coordinating his visit, but all are welcome. He is not to be missed and I hope you can join us for a most inspiring performance.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ilan
