Always a Story

At my younger son's white coat ceremony at UVA's Medical School, one of the speakers said, "If you want to teach somebody something, tell them a story and they'll figure it out".

In the beginning...I accepted the volunteer chairmanship of the Ritual Committee of Temple Shalom (The New Jewish Congregation) in Oxford, Florida. A lot of people, especially those who watch the golf channel, know this area of Central Florida as, "The Villages". Temple Shalom is a reform synagogue with an inclusive religiously diverse congregation. Our ritual committee strives to tailor how we do things here to better serve our members.

For example, why is the Torah traditionally read on Monday, Thursday and twice on Saturday? These established four Torah reading times corresponded to when the most number of people were available to hear the reading. Monday and Thursday were big market days in olden times. So, why is the Torah read on three Friday nights and the last Saturday of the month at Temple Shalom? If you read Torah when most people are at services, then the most number of people get to hear Torah on a regular basis.

Perhaps my philosophy of tailoring comes from that phenomenon known as, "inheritance of acquired characteristics". My father was a tailor, trained by ORT in Germany, after surviving the war. But that's another story.

Many of our congregants are early to bed, early to rise retirees. Thus, for example, it makes no sense to have a Selichot service at midnight, when few are available to participate. I believe that Temple Shalom reaches out to bring religion, spirituality, learning, support and friendship to our people.

I embrace the guideline that it is the philosophy of individual informed choice that is the premise of Reform Judaism. I think this implies dignity and encourages us to use our "yiddishe kup".