A Roadmap to Eternity

Dear Rabbiblog readers,

After an absence of a couple of weeks, I am back at the blog. I share with you a lovely letter of praise from one of our hosts of the Shabbat around Seattle program of Panim Hadashot, New Faces of Judaism. I bring this letter to your attention because the writer expresses so clearly what the approach I am taking to sharing Judaism and to modeling a Jewish life. I will conclude with a few observations at the conclusion of the letter.

Rabbi,
Our family struggled for years while the children were growing up to have the kind of Shabbat experience we had the evening you brought Panim Hadashot to our home. Gone were the stress and the fights we remember from those years. They were replaced by a sense of joy and peace, singing, laughter and involvement. You helped create the most beautiful Shabbat experience my family has ever known in our home.

I am inspired now to try to recreate the experience on Friday nights in the future. You gave us the roadmap and the tools so that I feel confident that we can achieve that goal. We are also grateful to you for introducing us to the new faces who joined us for dinner. It is remarkable how much richness it adds to the experience to also make new friends with people whose background and life experiences is so different from our own!

Finally, the wisdom you shared and the contributions of the others to the discussion of the evening's topic, living with religious differences, were awesome! I feel that the ideas and views that were shared will impact me and my family for a long time, As I mentioned when I asked that this be the topic, our family, like most of the other families present that night, has struggled with the issue, found ways to accommodate, but still struggle. I now have a sense that the path to Shalom Bayit, peace in the house, is clearer for all of us.Again, thank you and Panim Hadashot for a truly wonderful and moving Shabbat!

*******
This letter helps to confirm for me the value of the original idea of Panim Hadashot: If Judaism is to become meaningful again for many Jews, connected or disconnected, from Jewish life, it has to start at home. I realized after 20 years in the congregational pulpit that sermons rarely change people, but going into Jewish homes to share the loveliness of Shabbat would deeply touch those around the table. It isn't even enough to invite people to the rabbi's home. A rabbi should be willing to teach and model Judaism in the home of other Jews. In this way, Jews will begin to imagine the roadmap to restoring a joyous Shabbat in their homes.

This realization meant a radical rethinking of the role and activities of the rabbi. It led me to question the effectiveness of the modern synagogue as it is now constituted. It led me to question the expectations put on contemporary rabbis which are so destructive to the rabbinate and the communities rabbi's serve. It led me to question the over emphasis on communal worship in big sanctuaries Heschel wrote that modern Jews are totally focused on the ephemeral and have abandoned the eternal. I believe deeply that Shabbat is the Jewish expression of eternity. Like any spiritual practice, it requires attention and mentoring. How could we dare neglect the greatest spiritual resource and teaching in our tradition. This understanding forced me to focus on a model of the rabbinate that would allow me to teach, mentor, and model a taste of eternity.

Panim Hadashot means new faces. The host wrote of the joy of having new faces at her table. I am deeply committed to restoring the centrality of Hachnasat Orchim-hospitality to Jewish life. Hospitality is not about serving cookies. It is a spiritual and philosophical openness to the other. This is expressed in Judaism by the act of sharing our Shabbat tables not only with our family and friends, but with acquaintances and strangers. A commitment to hospitality engenders a regard for the other, a respect for human diversity, a tolerance for difference, and ultimately a 'ahavat haberiot' a love for people. I consider the act of inviting a stranger to the Shabbat table a fulfillment of the Torah's command, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Contemporary Judaism suffers from many different forms of insularity: the separateness inherited from the tradition that insisted we distance ourselves from non-Jews; the pervasive social cliquishness of many Jewish communities; the inflated elitism of many committed Jews who look down on those who know or do less. While we can be proud that our tradition does not insist on saving the souls of every non-believer, we should not be proud of a pervasive insularity that has so diminished the value of true hospitality in our tradition. I have set as my goal to bring back this openness and graciousness to Jewish life. Shabbat is our door into eternity. How could we not share it with others?

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg 11/8/05 - 6 Heshvan 5766