To be a CBB Member

Friday night, June 2, 2023

            There is an old story of a non-observant Jew who comes to the entrance of a synagogue on Yom Kippur and asks to be let in.  The usher at the door says “can I see your ticket please?”  And the man says “I don’t have a ticket.  I’m not a member.  I just need to speak for a minute with my friend who has already gone in.”  The usher answers him politely but firmly, “I’m very sorry, but if you are not a member and have no ticket, you cannot go in.  There just are no open seats.”  The man becomes agitated and pleads with the usher “I don’t need a seat!  I just need to speak for a minute with my friend about a very important personal matter. Can’t you just let me in for a minute?”  And the usher, who is just doing his job, glances quickly to his left and to his right and then says “OK, make it quick.   But don’t let me catch you praying!”

            I’m happy and proud that our congregation has had a wide-open door for twenty years now.  Even when we know that we are going to have a full house, and it may be difficult to find a seat, we allow anyone to come in and participate.  All are welcome at all times, and you never need to be a member.

            Our open-door policy does lead to the interesting and important question of “why would anyone choose to be a member?”  Especially in our highly individualistic day and age, in which so many people say…and I have heard this many times over the years…. “I don’t join anything.  I support causes and organizations, and I participate when I feel like it, but I just don’t like to have my name on a list.”  Many of my friends have said this to me.  To be completely honest, I have sometimes asked myself whether, if I was not the rabbi, I would make the decision to be a member!!

            Tonight on this “Membership Shabbat,” let me offer my own answer to the question: “What does it mean to join CBB?  What is the deep meaning of the decision to become a member?”

            I think the answer is provided by our congregation’s mission statement.  “Congregation B’nai B’rith is a diverse and inclusive community of families and individuals building together a house of living Judaism.”  Did you know that was our mission statement?  I sometimes feel that we need to do a better job of sharing it.  I’ll say it again: “Congregation B’nai B’rith is a diverse and inclusive community of families and individuals building together a house of living Judaism.” 

            The decision to be a member is the decision to join in that mission.  To decide to become a builder, together with the rest of this community, a builder of our house of living Judaism.  How does one do that?  Let me offer a few examples to illustrate.  These are just a few.

            The volunteer cooks in the kitchen on Sunday morning are building our house of living Judaism.

            The person who offers a ride, bringing an elderly member of our community to services is building our house of living Judaism.

            The teens who work as madrichim, teachers’ aides, with our little kids on Sunday morning, and our teachers who love both Judaism and our children, are building our house of living Judaism.

            Our board and committee members who sit together and dream and debate, and sometimes gnash their teeth, are building our house of living Judaism.

            The singers in our choir, who fill this room and our hearts with music every month are building our house of living Judaism.

            Our members who offer tutoring and advice and love and friendship to students from Ukraine or from Chad or from Israel or from Turkey at the Givat Haviva International School in Israel are building our house of living Judaism.

            Our adult learners who come together to study and engage with our ancient texts and with each other, to listen deeply to the voices out of our past, are building our house of living Judaism.

            Each one of you, when you come here to pray, and to open your hearts and minds to the divine presence, inviting that presence into this room, are building our house of living Judaism.

            As we are all aware, our physical temple campus is undergoing a profound and dramatic transformation.  We are waiting, as patiently as possible, for the demolition and the grading, the earth, the stone, the lumber and the plaster to come together through the hands of the skilled workers on that site.  But the house we are building together is an invisible, spiritual structure, built of friendships, and memories, shared grief and celebrations, deep learning and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of acts of kindness and connections between one soul and another.  That is the house of living Judaism that we are building together.

            When we make the decision to join CBB we declare “I will join that work.  With this community, I will help to build that house.”  In just a few minutes we are going to thank and honor a woman, our friend Mariela Socolovsky, who has worked for seven years helping our members find their place in this sacred building work. 

Tonight, I would like to offer a blessing to those of our members who have joined since our last New Member shabbat.  Because of the covid pandemic we have not had a new member shabbat in several years.  So tonight, we need to make up for several missed years.  At this time, I would like to invite up anyone here who has joined this congregation since March 2020, three years ago. 

To all of you, on behalf of our entire community, I would like to say thank you, and to express our hope and prayer that, because of the decision you have made to join us in our work of building this house, your lives and the lives of your family and everyone around you, will be blessed.

Shabbat shalom.