Affirming Good Times

My perspective on religion as an institution has been floating between synapses for a while, the institutional side not faring very well, the ability to generate thought imprinting more favorably.  Not just my religion, something inherited and socialized more than sought out and purchased.   But it does deal with death better than secularism once death has occurred.  Judaism acknowledges death, but we really affirm the life that was.  

Some memorials have clustered of late.  First a Jewish pillar of my childhood, a synagogue stalwart who would be the first to greet me on my return any shabbos morning, long after I had relocated.  This week also brought the Yahrtzeit of another beloved congregational lady, a woman of talent, pleasantness, and commitment, whose surviving husband brought stability to our congregation in precarious times.  He needed a minyan so he and his son could recite Kaddish in her memory.  Though I could have been doing other things, I helped assure ten men attended.  We gathered far o than that.

This shabbos, I recite Kaddish for my father, it being my custom to do this on the Saturday preceding yahrtzeit, then light the candle on the actual day later in the week.  I assume ten men will come to enable this, but in recent months it's not been a slam dunk.

Along a similar theme, the Post-Dispatch, which I've been reading since college since only they and the other P-D the Plain Dealer had color comics on the back, accessible in the student lounge from University subscription, ran a FB notice inviting nominations for favorite teacher.

Our icon by overwhelming consensus was the Senorita, that pillar of Spanish who really turned us into mensches.  I tried to nominate her posthumously but was blocked, not because of her passing but because she did not teach in the Post-Dispatch's circulation region.  Still, I searched for her obit and found it.

 https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/lohud/name/norma-rodriguez-obituary?pid=149373359

I hadn't known of her PhD or her brothers or her age or her short term parochial school experiences before becoming the fixture in my school.  She generated many  highly distinguished alumni, much indebted to her.  She had come as a distinguished invited guest at our high school reunion, where I had the privilege of not only chatting but updating her on who else in the class had become physicians, a few very prominent.  She also indicated that she was on chemotherapy and making end of life arrangements with another classmate who had become an attorney not far from where she taught us.  She apparently passed away within a few months of that event.  Another pillar whose life contributed so much.

So I'll observe Kaddish and Yahrtzeit as scheduled.

PM Minyan

Our shul has been the full service congregation for most of its existence.  Two minyanim daily except Sunday night, control of the Vaad HaKashrut for the state, full kryat HaTorah at each scheduled time.  We need people to do these things.  For the Vaad the Conservative congregation now has some representation but Chabad does not.  Our minyanim, though have become insecure.  On Wednesday and Friday shacharit we have a combined service with the USCJ affiliate with a hybrid liturgy that is mostly from the Conservative siddur.  As people retire, the 7AM starting time gets less realistic but I am told the quorum usually materializes. 

PM has been more problematic.  I went yesterday, just the Rabbi and me and two men observing shiva.  Attending three a month had been one of the twelve initiatives for this half year.  Since I do not want to go to the Rabbi's classes that follow on Wednesday and Thursday, I selected Monday and Tuesday.  Rabbi has Monday off so for all practical purposes there is no service.  Tuesday never gets more than half a minyan when I am there.  I asked the Rabbi if there is ever a PM minyan.  Sometimes if enough men attend the evening classes and sometimes for Shabbos afternoon.  That would mean kabbalat Shabbat is no more, which is why I observe Kaddish at the Reform congregation that starts later of Friday nights and secures ten Jewish men, or at least within my system of counting ten men wearing kippot in a sanctuary where they are optional.  And I get some wonderful music and a thoughtful sermon thrown in.

We are running out of people. 

Maintaining Minyanim

This week's announcements at the conclusion of shabbat morning services included an invitation to play softball the next day and a reminder to the men in attendance that the minyan failed to materialize several times during the previous week.  On four occasions they got nine, which would make for a softball team which I think counts women, but not for a minyan which does not.  I could have gone yesterday morning but didn't, even though I am an Ovel.  I hardly ever miss Friday night at the Reform Beth Emeth and if not on call generally make it to shabbos morning for kaddish but I do not feel captured by the plea of the Rabbi and a few others for community.  On occasion, it is announced that a particular individual has yahrtzeit and a few men set their clocks to enable attendance.  But other than shabbat and Sunday mornings, the required quorum does not always materialize.

Ari Goldman's Living a Year of Kaddish   included several hundred pages on minyanim, largely struggling ones, despite his orthodox practice.  During my shiva last fall we got the ten at the two Chabad locations in Florida and at AKSE each morning but struggled with the evenings, requiring personal invitations.

In many ways the minyan has become a club with its regulars.  They see themselves as a predictable service to others who can take it or leave it, but never see a need to inconvenience the club members in any way to make it more attractive or secure.  There will be appeals for attendance as long as the required ten remains insecure.  Once there are ten regulars, as there were at AKSE not that many years ago before three of the daily attendees made Aliyah, the solicitation to have more people attend loses its urgency.  There is no longer a reason to expand the club or modify it so that it might be more attractive to more men.