Shabbos as Spectator

Made it to Beth Tfiloh for shabbos.  Understudy Rabbi this time, with a D'var Torah on the disappearing derech eretz in politics, one that can get quite a few cards & letters, perhaps even mine.  Yet going there, despite the substantial round trip has its allure that I find hard to duplicate.

The drive is quiet time.  No radio.  One stop for either breakfast or coffee, subsidized by the State of Delaware, since the route to the WaWa takes me around the toll.  Once there, I take my seat, having staked out two places, one on each side of an aisle which affords me a few seats of personal space and a good view.  I do not know anyone and nobody knows me, until the end when I typically encounter somebody from my home shul who now lives in Baltimore and attends there.  The Torah reader usually comes over to greet me, but I might as well be a spectator in a theater, which adds to the attraction if once a quarter but would end the attaction if I went every shabbos and remained alone amid a crowd of hundreds.

Lately I've been arriving a little earlier, typically at the Amidah repetition.  Their sequence of prayers is a little variation of AKSE's.  The Torah processional is limited to the return.  Women do the Government and Soldier's prayers in English.  Prayer for Israel is part of the Torah processional.  Torah reading is expert in accuracy and fluency.  There are no Aliyah Sound Bites, which is worth the drive in itself.  I've been there enough now and read additional sermons online to suspect they are written de novo without recycling AIPAC or other organizational FAX broadcasts to American rabbis to adapt to their weekly shabbos message.  Those messages are OK, but I think I can tell that the rabbis function as an organizational conduit and not people of personal insight when they do that.

No Bar Mitzvah this shabbos.  Musaf zips along, services conclude and we go to kiddush, not very different in content than ours but on a larger scale.

Looking around, they probably can assemble a minyan of men under age 50, but it won't be a very large minyan.  To be fair, they have parallel services elsewhere in the building and the people at kiddush seem younger than the men in the main sanctuary so that may be where the younger men worship.  The women on their side of the mechitza seemed younger than the men in the main  sanctuary.  Children come up to the bimah for kiddush.  There were about 30 of them, so generational attrition will likely happen though at a much smaller pace than at AKSE. 

So if I want to watch something done well, I go there.  If I want to be more of a participant, even a sometimes irritated one, my home base supplies that need.

Wrong Haftarah

Intereting shabbos, a special event with a landmark birthday for one of our congregants, which attracted many of her friends from the USCJ congregation, which provided us a real Kohen and Levi for our Torah reading, something we often do not have among our own members in attendance.  They had to sit through a whole Torah reading, 126 pesukim, but only two Aliyah Sound Bites, both brief.  And somewhat expanded Kiddush to make the attendance worthwhile. 

The Haftarot that bridge Tisha B'Av and Rosh Hashana, seven Haftarot of Consolation from Isaiah, all need to be read, though there has been some divided opinion as to whether a special Haftarah as the new month changes from Av to Elul, as it did last shabbat, changes the sequence.  Our custom has been to read Haftarah Rosh Hodesh, then double Re-eh and Ki Tatzay as they are ordinarily read together as the Haftarah for Noach.  That has been our custom, or so it was announced by the Rabbi with the right page number for Rosh Hodesh.  The reader, however just started Re-eh, leaving those of us who could read Hebrew wondering for a moment why he was reading from a different page than was announced.  Most of us figured it out quickly, found the right text and followed along, at least from our congregation.  Don't know if the visitors from elsewhere could tell the difference, or even cared.  That may be our principle form of product differentiation.

As congregational snafu's go, there are many more serious ones like entrenching all the VP's in the Executive Board in perpetuity to the neglect of talent progression or sermons that are too identifiable as AIPAC faxes to their designated Rabbis.  Perfection is often the enemy of the good and we botched this one.

Being Manipulated

http://forward.com/opinion/336718/a-humbled-aipac-is-paying-a-price-for-growth/?attribution=articles-hero-item-text-4&attribution=articles-hero-item-text-4

AIPAC held its annual meeting, an extravaganza of Zionists, of which I include myself, though some of the in your face positions leave me wondering at times.  I've never attended the annual meeting, though increasing numbers of people do.  I've got enough vacation time and it's Washington location is easily accessible.  I'm a little put off by the expense, and as I read about JJ Goldberg's account in The Forward I might be a little put off by the people who go there.  It comes across in the report as Macher City, people who restrict or even manipulate what they want you to know, the experience they want you to have, and even when the people who count think applause would sound good.  Federation Types everywhere absorbed in their own importance thoroughly neglectful of the reality that the rabbinical tradition of Judaism that has made us enduring depends not only on diversity of opinion but on its expression and analysis.  Manipulation = Attrition.  I definitely looked askance of reporter Goldberg's account of the event.  While attendance is up, I have little desire to be a part of the extravaganza that he wrote about.

YK Reflections

Our holiest day came and went.  Kol Nidre was not particularly well attended.  The sanctuary seemed more completely occupied the following day, keeping in mind that the portion devoted to seating has been reduced every few years.  We were asked for money a lot.  Mostly noble causes like keeping the synagogue solvent or supporting the infrastructure of Israel.  The reason for buying Israel Bonds was a lot more obvious than the reason for keeping the synagogue solvent.  One of the salient features that keeps AKSE different from Chabad is that AKSE has to adapt to its constituents while Chabad does not.  Keeping it solvent for the sake of keeping it solvent without keeping it attractive and vibrant as a consequence of keeping it financially viable might be a hard sell.  And there was a pitch for pet projects:  AIPAC,CUFI, multicongregational Israeli trip which seems unduly expensive, parsha class.  None of this really grabs me, though I do plan to study the parsha each week on yutorah.org, something I've not done in a few years.  Maybe Israel has become the new Holocaust, a purpose for existence beaten into a cliche by Hebrew School or Rabbis who want to turn their congregations into Hebrew School.  Of course it has its place, but so does the Parsha and so does the reality that CUFI while friendly to Israel also carries the banner of some very un-Jewish ideology that gets hidden, perhaps even a form of genevas da-as.  But throughout the YK observance, somebody on the bimah was trying to sell us something.  It all registered neutral, which is better than registering negative.

In my capacity as observer, there were some encouraging parts of the experience.  People of great talent occupied those seats, most of them capable of doing a lot more to enhance the congregation than they currently do.  Perhaps they would if anyone solicited their participation but for the most part nobody has.  If there is any legacy to the outgoing President, who has really worked hard on the congregation's behalf, I think it is that he surrounded himself with a small group of insiders that he knew he could work at the expense of creating a grass roots.  The role of committees has contracted, contrary to the advice of the consultant a few years back.  Appointments for key initiatives comes from an ever contracting pool.  The Nominating Committee has been thoroughly corrupted from a means of evaluating and expanding talent to a telephone squad for the President to decide who he wants to surround himself with.  That form of thinking has some very negative consequences for an organization that has thrived on its openness, some of which seem to be playing out.

And finally, the break the fast presentation was superb.  In addition to an outstanding display of food, they took advantage of a diminishing attendance to create a space with tables behind the sanctuary where people could help themselves to food and enjoy each other.  The people really are capable of excellence but sometimes you have to insist that excellence be consistent in all activities.