The opening words of this week’s Parsha are “Give ear, O Heavens, let me speak; Let the earth hear the words I utter”. (Deuteronomy 32:1) I have this image in my head of a person, Moses, demanding to be heard and wondering where all the people are to listen to his words. We’re all familiar with the philosophical question: if a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s there to hear it does it make a sound? I mention this to express that, if none of us is listening, these words I’m writing are pointless and meaningless. Please give me a moment of your time and hear me out as I express a very important and urgent message.
We celebrated the first day of Rosh Hashana this past week and had a sub-par gathering in terms of our members who were and were not there. On the second day, the numbers were even worse and caused me, and our leaders, to bemoan the current state of this beautiful institution we’re all deeply vested in. The time has arrived to look not only at our membership numbers and how our financial health is doing… we need to look at our engagement and see that we have so much work to do. We need to stop accepting sub-par engagement numbers and push ourselves to grow and do and be better. On the second day, I stood up and spoke because something needed to be said about attendance. Of course, this was the penultimate “preaching to the choir” but it needed to be said then and it needs to be said now as well.
Hillel famously said: If I am not for myself who will be for me? And if I am only for myself then what am I? And, if not now, when? (Pirkei Avot 1:14) We need to recognize that our heritage and our faith is personal and the way for us to grow is through our engagement. There’s so much for us each to gain, independently, through being a part of the ritual observance of our community. At the same time, we each need to do our part to support others in need of our community. We have members who would like to say Kaddish for their loved ones (I’m one of those people) and we’ve had occasions where we’ve been unable to put together a minyan. There are other examples of how we need to show up for our community too and thus the first two parts of Hillel’s statement ring true: OVS and Judaism are for the individual and for the community. The third part of his statement are the most essential… the time is now. We cannot continue to wait to improve. We cannot continue to stay on the sidelines. We cannot continue to accept sub-par attendance at our ritual observances. We must act now to right our ship. We must find the ability within ourselves to show up and be a part of our sacred community.
This Shabbat is called Shabbat Teshuvah and is the Shabbat between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. It’s the Sabbath of the Ten Days of Repentance and we must look in the mirror and examine ourselves. We must look in the mirror and ask if we’re showing up as much as we can for ourselves and for others. We must look in the mirror and recognize our community cannot rest in the past but must have a future in the form of a dynamic and engaged Jewish community. The time is now. We can’t continue to put this off. The time is now to show up and the time is now to be involved. For those of you who were not here… we missed you. Genuinely, we missed you and hope to see you at Kal Nidre and Yom Kippur. For those of you who helped make our services wonderful this past weekend, we thank you for your time and your involvement and hope to continue to see you in this new year. For both of these groups, we need you to know we are fully open and want to be together with all of our members.
Thank you for hearing me out. Please don’t allow this plea to be a tree falling in the woods without anyone hearing it. Please let it be heard by all of us. Let us all testify that we’ve heard this important call to action. OVS needs you now. The Jewish world needs you now. The time to act is not later… it is now. Now is when we each need to step up and do more and be more. Please help us be better and stronger as a congregation.
Gmar Chatima Tovah A good sealing to each of you in the Book of Life.
Rabbi Hearshen
Candlelighting time on September 22 is 7:16 pm
Saturday Evening Services
Shabbat Teshuvah
Saturday Evening Services on September 23 begin at 7:20 pm in the Chapel
Sunday Morning Services
Sunday Morning Services will be held at 8:30 am in the Chapel.
Tickets for High Holiday services are requiredfor everyone ages 18 and up. Photo ID will be required to pick up tickets at "will call".
Visit orveshalom.org/hhdfor a complete listing of all High Holiday services & programs.
Deadline Extended to Tuesday, September 26
Join the conversation about Israeli Democracy during dinner. See details below.
Join the discussion at OVS during the Shabbat Dinner in the Sukkah on Friday September 29.Click here to sign up for the special meal by Chef Daniel Andre from the Buckhead Club.
BIRTHDAYS
Shabbat Ari Falkenstein Stanford Firestone
Monday Angel Pupo Yashal Ilyayev Zachary Maslia
Tuesday Marvin Bernstein
Wednesday Madeline Sater
Thursday Richard Benator
Friday Brittany Kalson Elaine Levine James Arogeti Miriam Wasileski
ANNIVERSARIES Monday Albert and Jeanie Marx Scott and Jordan Arogeti
Meldados
Shabbat Juda Notrica
Sunday Stephanie Kalish Newman
Monday Mary Dozetos Chester Duwell
Tuesday Luna Barrocas Lois Budman Chazke Pieniek
Wednesday Fay Lewitz Frits Simon Mendels
Thursday Albert Tenenbaum Mafrat Badalbayeva Ruth Alhadeff
