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THE DETEM
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,
Although the most-often quoted figure is 50 percent,
synagogue affiliation for Jews in the United States
may be as low as 25 percent.
neighbors, but if you are a number to
the one who marries you, or to the one
who buries you . . .? If he does not
know your pain, if he does not , even
know your name . . .isn't that a loss?
This is what happens if you have
never met him and he has never met
you. This is what happens if you don't
belong to a synagogue.
There is one more loss if you. do not
belong. Your child may not be old
enough to start his Jewish education,
or he may have finished it. But have
you? You, more than anyone, should
realize how much you don't know.
By no means does the synagogue
- have all the answers. But at least it
deals with the right questions, the ul-
timate questions. And it deals with
them from the perspective of the cen-
turies, not just from the point of view of
the latest fad or cult.
If you come to the synagogue, you
will hear some of the central spiritual
questions of our time explored.
Every generation thinks that no
one before it has ever experienced its
particular brand of woe and sorrow.
But the people whose lives we read
about in the synagogue went through
all the same crises that we go through.
Have you ever lost your job?
\(.2 •
Adam had a good job. He was a
gardener, and he had tenure and social
security. And he lost it in one day.
Have you ever lost your home?
Noah had a fine home, in a good
neighborhood. And it floated away, to-
gether with the neighborhood, in a
flood.
Have you ever gone bankrupt?
Abraham had a good business in
which he was in parthership with a
relative. But they couldn't get along,
and they had to break up the business.
Are you unable to communicate
with your wife anymore?
Isaac had a wife and at first they
got along well, but somewhere along
the way they stopped communicating
with each other. They each had a child
whom they favored, but they couldn't
talk to each other about it, so they de-
ceived each other and the family fell
apart as a result.
Have you ever lost a woman whom
you loved?
Jacob had a woman whom he
loved, and she died on him, and he
never got over it.
Whatever happens to us happened
to them first. Therefore, we can draw
some strength from their experience
and some guidance for our lives from a
study of theirs.
There is one more thing that the
synagogue can give you, something
powerful and precious. I can explain
why it is best by telling you this story.
Arthur Koestler, the famous novelist
and philosopher, tells the story in his
autobiography of why he became a
Communist. When he was growing up
in Germany in the days of the Weimar
Republic,, he writes, every political
party came to him and said vote for us
and we will do this for you, vote for us
and we will do that for you.
Every political party said that ex-
cept the Communists. They came to
him and said vote for us because we
need you. And because the need to be
needed is such a deep and basic human
need, he joined that party.
I say this to you: We need you. The
Jewish people need you, God needs
you. The number of Jews left in this
world who still care is so few, and the
needs of the Jewish people so great, we
need every single Jew we can find. So
we say to you: Join us, help us, work
with us.
These are the four reasons I would
have you join us, or rejoin us if you
have drifted away. Because it will
connect you to the roots from which
you come. Because it will connect you
to a community that cares. Because it
will connect you to a heritage that con-
tains some wise insights into how to
lead a human life. Above all, because
we need you, and to be needed is such
an important part of every person's
life.
I know you will tell me that the
real synagogue is not like the ideal one
I have painted. I know you can tell me
that the real synagogue can be a petty
place, a trivial place, even a corrupt
place. I know that, at least as well as
you do. But that is all the more reason
to become part of it — to help correct it,
and to make it what it was meant to be.
Next time we meet, be it at a bar
mitzvah or at a wedding, please don't
just nod and look and hesitate and
then turn away. Come over and talk.
Come over and tell me what you think.
Will you, please?
Till then, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Rabbi Jack Riemer
Rabbi Reimer, of Congregation
Beth El in La Jolla, Calif, is
co-editor of "Ethical Wills: A
Modern Jewish Treasury,"
published by Schocken Books.