Chanukah is a time of wishes. For children, many wish for presents or a way to find the perfect dreidel spin to win the Rinat youth department challenge. For adults, many wish for the willpower to resist one more latke or piece of chocolate gelt. While I wish for both a great dreidel spin as well as the perfect latke, I find that my thoughts on our shul are driven by the words of Benjamin Linus, a community activist originally from Portland, Oregon who articulated the following view:
“Picture a box. What if I told you that somewhere on this island there's a very large box...and whatever you imagined...whatever you wanted to be in it...when you opened that box, there it would be. What would you say about that?”
We at Rinat are at the stage where we are physically creating (much more than) a new box, while at the same time having a chance to imagine and evaluate the type of environment we want to have when we re-open our shul. Rinat has a rich and proud history as a place of learning and meaningful tefillah, but we can be even more than that. At the end of November, David Jacobowitz and the adult education committee ran an event featuring Newark mayor Corey Booker on the topic of “The future of Black-Jewish relations”. The night was an overwhelming success as over three hundred people of all religions, colors and political affiliations joined us to hear the mayor’s words, and participate in an extended question and answer session moderated by Gary Rosenblatt . This event serves to remind us that while we will always continue our standards of excellence in bringing in leaders in Judaic studies and thought, we should extend our reach to make Rinat a place of community outreach and involvement. Please note that we posted video from the event on www.rinat.org.
As we prepare to open our new sanctuary in March 2010, the Ritual Committee (Rabbi Adler, Avi Katz and myself) has undertaken a review of our policies and practices regarding Kriyat Hatorah. After a series of meetings and much consideration, the Committee has whole-heartedly endorsed the recent initiative led by our main minyan Gabbai, Aaron Friedman, to expand and broaden the pool of Ba’alei Kriyah in our Shul. At the same time, the committee is mindful that Rinat has a long-standing tradition of excellence in leining and, as a Shul, we value and are committed to continuing that standard. Additionally, we believe it is of the utmost importance that respect and courtesy be shown to all Ba’laei Kriyah who undertake to prepare and read a Parsha in Shul, whether they have years of experience, are less frequent Torah readers or are post bar-mitzvah age young men who are just beginning to lein. In order to balance these various goals and objectives, the Committee has formulated the following program.
- Rabbi Jeremy Wieder will deliver a series of three classes beginning in February, reviewing and highlighting both the basic fundamentals as well as many of the finer points of leining. Note: While attendance at these Shiurim is not a requirement for future leining, preference will be given by the Gabbai to those who attend.
- Rabbi Wieder has also graciously donated copies of his CD (Vayavinu BaMikra) which contains the leining for every Parsha and Haftara, as well as a summary of various issues that frequently occur during leining. These CDs may be borrowed by any member to assist in leining preparation. Please contact Adina in the office or Avi Katz if you would like to check out a copy.
- At each of our Shul minyanim, the minyan Gabbai (with the exception of the teacher of a bar mitzvah boy) is the sole person responsible for corrections during Kriyat Hatorah. Everyone other than the Gabbbai is asked to refrain from making corrections. Discussion regarding the merit of a Gabbai’s corrections (or lack thereof) is to take place, in a respectful manner, only following the end of Davening.
- Recognizing that there is merit in having someone who can listen during the early stages of preparation, the Gabbaim have created a list of Ba’alai Kriyah who are available to listen to leining in advance of someone coming up to the bimah. Seeking assistance from a volunteer is not, and will not be, a prerequisite for being allowed to lein—it is, rather, another service that we are offering in the interest of encouraging more people to lein and to lein well. Please contact the office or any of the gabbaim for a copy of the list, or you may download it from the shul’s website.
- As I mentioned in an earlier column, post-Bar mitzvah age boys are encouraged to lein at Shabbat Mincha. Anyone who is interested should feel free to approach Rabbi Blackstein and to take advantage of our volunteers.
It is our hope that our program will allow us to continue to maintain the high leining standards that we value, and at the same time provide the opportunity for a broad spectrum of our members to participate in the mitzvah of Kriyat Hatorah.
As a final note, I want to follow up on the recent reminder from the head of our expansion committee, Terry Novetsky, and encourage all members to pay their building fund and pledges before the end of the calendar year. As it is plain to see from street level, we have made and continue to make incredible progress on the physical structure. We therefore ask that if you have not yet paid your building fund obligation for 2009, please do so; if you are able to increase your pledge with a larger donation, please contact the committee to do so, and if you are not able to increase your pledge but can pre-pay parts or all of future years, please do so. Every contribution that we have in-hand today helps us as we get closer to the opening of our new makom tefillah.
Wishing you and your families a Chag Urim Sameach and a Happy Chanukah, and may all your dreidel spins land on Gimmel.
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