I recently had a chance to speak with a student, Gail—a woman who was one of very first participants of the MJE (Manhattan Jewish Experience) Beginners minyan over 20 years ago.
Gail was raised in Long Island and her family belonged to a Reform temple where they would attend services on the High Holidays. Like many, her initial associations with synagogue and Judaism were, unfortunately, not terribly positive. After college, Gail moved to Manhattan and a friend brought her to MJE. When she entered the building and found out that she had just entered into an Orthodox shul, she turned around and headed right for the door. Her friend stopped her and encouraged her to give it a try. Gail came to MJE and something just clicked.
She came back the next week and started coming to our classes. Gail came on our Spring Retreat, traveled with us to Israel for the first time and over the next two years eventually started to become observant. She met a young man, an active member of the Modern Orthodox community and they got married. Today they and their two children live in White Plains, where they send their children to Jewish day school and are active in the local Modern Orthodox synagogue.
Gail’s initial encounter with Judaism was not terribly positive, but when she became associated with a different place, things changed. It wasn’t Judaism but her experience with a particular synagogue and community that was problematic. “Boredom,” “irrelevance” and even “hypocrisy” are some of the words I hear when I ask my students what synagogue was like for them growing up. Some have had positive experiences but it’s usually the exception. But the real question is: What is the function of a synagogue and of a Jewish community? What is it supposed to accomplish for the Jewish people, and are our synagogues living up to their mission?
In Parshat Trumah we learn of that mission. God tells the Jews to create a Mikdash, a Tabernacle. According to both our Prophets and Sages, the Mishkan was intended to live on within our synagogues and halls of study. But what was the Mishkan’s purpose and how is it supposed to somehow live on within our synagogues?
The Ramban answers that the Mishkan was intended to be a place in which God’s divine presence would rest in a more concealed fashion. A mobile Sinai unit, the Mishkan encapsulated the Sinai experience by having a perpetual revelation available to Moshe and the Jewish people through their sojourn in the wilderness.
But something else took place at Sinai. Sinai was not just powerful moment between man and God but also an important moment between man and his fellow man. Leading up to the Revelation, the Torah says: Vayachanu bamidbar – “and the Jews encamped in the wilderness”, and then it says, vayichan sham yisrael neged hahar – “and he encamped there, next to the mountain”. Why the switch from plural – “the Jews camped” to the singular – “and he camped?” Rashi answers – k’ish echad b’lev echad – “one person, one heart”- at Sinai Revelation the Jewish were so unified they were like one person with one heart. They were all on the same page – totally unified, unlike so many times before and after. That is the other aspect of the Sinai experience: the achdus of one Jew to the next.
So if the Mishkan was to be a mini-Sinai experience then its purpose was to not only bring the people to God, but to also connect one Jew to the next.
Applying this model of the Mishkan to our times, our synagogues must be both a place where all Jews can have access to Torah and spirituality, but also a place where everyone feels a sense of unity and oneness.
Without boasting, I truly believe that’s what we have at MJE. Our tefilah services and Torah classes that we offer virtually every day of the week make this a true place where Hashem’s presence can be felt and where we can grow spiritually no matter what our background. At the same time, we have a place where people can meet and connect. We may grow cynical of the big “scene” and the crowds that form at the kiddush or our other events, but we need to understand how critical it is that such a place exists for young people of all backgrounds to meet. It is critical we offer an authentic and compelling Judaism, but we also need to offer a way into the community. Not everyone out there is a spiritual seeker, but I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want to belong. This is what MJE has been doing for the last 24 years and b’ezrat Hashem we will continue to do even more as we head into the future. We are hosting our 24th annual dinner on March 21 where we raise the majority of our donations, so please consider attending or donating at www.jewishexperience.org to help us continue our holy work.
This Shabbat Gail will be sitting in synagogue in White Plains with her children. If she had not found her place in the Jewish community here, she probably wouldn’t be there right now – as a fully mainstreamed member of the Modern Orthodox community, like many hundreds of other MJE alumni. We have a lot to be proud of but we’re just getting started. May Hashem continue to bless our synagogues as we do our part to ensure they are all places we can hear God’s voice and where we can connect as a community as one person with one heart.
Shabbat Shalom
By Rabbi Mark Wildes
