Dear Friends,
Welcome to a snowy 2017!
As a child, I always loved snow, and getting off from school (except when I lived in Canada - no snow days there!). When I lived in New York, I used to love the first 20 minutes after a good snowstorm - the city was quiet and peaceful. After about twenty minutes the taxis would come out and then the city would be full of slush for way too long. But those first few minutes brought a sense of tranquility and calm to a city always in need of it. May it be so for us here in Memphis as well!
I've been thinking a lot about what I hope this year will bring. Obviously, we can't know what the future has in store for us. The only constant is that things change, and how we adapt to that change (or prevent ourselves from doing so) gives us a clear indication of how things will go in the year ahead. Whether we like it or not, people get sick, people move out of town, people pass away, and life as we know it constantly evolves. We do our best to hold tight to our values, our ethics, and our sense of self, even in the face of a constantly changing landscape.
My inbox was flooded last week with requests for end-of-year donations. Seemingly every Jewish and non-Jewish organization I've ever sent an email to wanted me to maximize my tax deductions for 2016. It was of course very nice of them to offer me the opportunity to do a mitzvah, and I'm happy to support organizations doing work I support.
We didn't send out end of year solicitations for the shul. We did, however, send out membership statements for the 2017 year. I want to ask each of you to join us as a member for the year ahead.
The question is asked to rabbis regularly - Why should I join a shul? Why does it cost so much money? Can't i just come to daven? Shouldn't that be free?
My answer is as follows:
It is free to come daven, and everyone is welcome to join us for free for any service we offer, including on the High Holidays. And, it costs money to do what we do - the building takes a lot of money to maintain, programs need money to operate, and of course we need to pay our staff to do all the things we want them to do. We do have many fabulous volunteers, and even with so many of you helping out, we have staff to help run programs, services, officiate at lifecycle events, teach classes, feed us, clean the building, and so much more.
The Jewish world has bent over backwards to provide fabulous opportunities for young Jews to experience Israel and fellowships and other gatherings for free. While not without its blessings, we have in fact trained them not to pay to help maintain the institutions and organizations that have created these programs. Why should they pay when we keep giving away the store for free? There has to be a better way. The membership/dues model is the approach we use.
When you join a synagogue, you're giving us a show of your support for the work we do, and saying that who we are as a community speaks to your values. You may not like every decision that gets made - great, come to a meeting and share your thoughts - we want to hear them! You may be members of other shuls - how wonderful that we have an associate dues category for those whose primary membership is elsewhere (though if you can afford full dues by us too, even better). You may not be able to pay the full cost of dues - that too is not a problem - meet with Geo and he'll be happy to work out a dues reduction for you - no one else needs to know, including me.
One of our members expressed concern that as a member, he'd be obligated to attend committee meetings and take more leadership roles. While we love all our members, we don't require anyone to do anything they don't want to do. We want you to be involved in the ways that feel right to you. Want to learn more? Come to adult ed. Want to help with tikkun olam? We have a great committee that does that. Men's Club, Sisterhood, Minyans, Chesed, Tikkun Olam, Cemetery, Hevra Kadisha, Young Families/Youth Commission, Programming, Building, Endowment, Fundraising, Ritual and more - we hope you'll find ways to interact with us in the year ahead. Of course, we want your dues payments, and even more importantly we want your involvement in the continued growth of Beth Sholom. With my departure over the summer, we want you to be involved in helping find the next rabbi of Beth Sholom. The search committee is hard at work and will keep you posted - please do get participate as plans develop.
Y'all know I don't hock you for money often - thankfully, we have others who can do that.I do want to invite you to join us as members of the shul - if you haven't sent in your payments please do so. If you need the membership application you can find it on our website (www.bsholom.org). If you have membership questions, contact myself, Geo, Sandy, or Barbara Hellman, our fabulous VP of Membership. Have an idea for a program at Beth Sholom? Let us know that too. We always want to hear what you're thinking - we strive to be responsive to the needs and desires of our membership.
Letting us know you'll support us as a member in the year ahead helps us know that we're doing good work, and that we can reach out to you for advice and support. Please join us as a member of Beth Sholom Synagogue, as together we'll continue the journey of Jewish tradition which has inspired and guided us for so many years.
Speaking of fabulous programming, please join us for Starbucks Shabbat tomorrow at 9 am, and Sunday afternoon for a wonderful concert with Cantor Daniel Kempin, joining us from Germany. He is one of the most talented yiddish and klezmer musicians I've ever encountered, and I'm blessed to call him a friend. He'll be with us in shul tomorrow, and I strongly encourage you to come Sunday afternoon at 2 pm - all ages and stages are welcome - please feel free to invite friends. Neither the concert nor shul tomorrow will close for snow, and we're not supposed to get more over the next few days. Hopefully it'll warm up a little here too. Brr......
Thanks so much for being a part of our shul community - we couldn't do what we do without you. Here's to a 2017 full of blessings, joy, good health, and peace.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ilan
