From the Rabbi's Desk

The portions of the Torah are named based on the first meaningful word that’s found in the section. Sometimes it’s the first word as is the case with בראשית/Bereshit, but more often than not it’s a few or so words into the verse that the Parsha gets its name. This week’s Parsha, ויקהל, gets its name from the very first word which means “and he convened (assembled the congregation)”. This is the same word we use quite often in describing OVS as our Keila or Keilah. It’s the Hebrew word קהילה, which means congregation. There’s another word for congregation you might be familiar with from other synagogues and that word is עדה, or more often than not עדת, which also means congregation. The opening verse of this week’s Parsha thus reads:

וַיַּקְהֵ֣ל מֹשֶׁ֗ה אֶֽת־כׇּל־עֲדַ֛ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֑ם אֵ֚לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּ֥ה יְהֹוָ֖ה לַעֲשֹׂ֥ת אֹתָֽם׃

And Moses assembled the entire congregation of the children of Israel and said to them “these are the things that God commanded (you) to do them”. (Shmot 35:1)

At the core of Judaism and Jewish peoplehood is a deep belief in the importance and the supremacy of community and communal living. It’s common for Jews to travel the world and to visit the Jewish communities at each destination. Carrie and I celebrated our honeymoon in Barbados a few years after our wedding, and while there, we visited the island’s remaining synagogue (Sephardic in origin) and even spent time in the attached cemetery cleaning graves. There’s something that connects us to one another and it’s something special and unique about the Jewish people and our relationship to the world Jewish community.

Our קהילה is over 100 years old. Our founders came from Turkey and Rhodes seeking a better life for themselves and their families. When they arrived here, they established a community that served as their social, cultural, educational and religious center by creating a synagogue. Over the years, our members have demonstrated their commitment to the Jewish people and to their heritage by having a special affinity to OVS and making it the center of their lives. As the years progressed and the generations grew up, more and more American things changed, but the adoration for OVS never diminished. The way Jews have shown their love for their קהילה is by giving from their hearts. In this week’s portion, we learn the term נדיב לב, which means those whose hearts inclined them towards something, and in this case, it was contributions to the community and the building of the משכן/Tabernacle. What’s incredible is eventually the builders and artisans had to tell משה/Moses they had enough and that people had to stop giving. Think about that. People just wanted to give all they could.

This article is not an appeal for funds for our community. Rather it’s an appeal for your hearts and your commitment. We need you. We need your involvement. We need your commitment. We need you. Since COVID ravaged our world in 2020, communities have struggled to restart with varying degrees of success. With the worst behind us, we need to rebuild what COVID broke. We need to rebuild our communities and the only way to do that is for each of us to do our part. We need you to come to services. We need you to come to classes. We need you to come to gatherings. We need you to come to meetings. We need you. If there’s something we’re not doing right, please let us know and we’ll see what we can do to correct it. If there’s something you’d like us to do, please talk to us so we can plan programs you want. We need you. We need your hearts and your commitment. Our community can only be as strong as our members and their commitments. Let’s work together to assemble our community together more and more often and with greater strength.