Community and Commitment

Communities are about commitments.

Communities have expectations. (There is something decidedly Jewish about expectations. Commandedness is a central element of what it means to be Jewish; we’re concerned with much more than what is “nice to do,” but rather a sense of what we’re obligated to do, what we’re responsible for.) When members hold themselves accountable to a community’s expectations, they themselves are deciding whether or not they belong to the community.  In this way, we’re not dealing with enforcement, but people’s own investment.

On defining those expectations: I learned from Noa Kushner that it is important to have a strong leader who helps define expectations. A strong leader enables clear values and expectations to be articulated (and hopefully, practiced). Clear expectations lead to strong communities. Otherwise, if you try to be everything to everybody, values die a “death by committee.”

What if, rather than reading a dues structure agreement, new community members had to read and sign a brit? Or maybe a brit for their smaller community (eg: the Masa families community, the Teen Exchange community) that articulated the values of the larger community within the context of the smaller group? (More on this below. See “One practical idea:”)

What if, instead of “membership” in a synagogue, we tried using the word “belonging” to a synagogue? Membership implies a service—like a gym or a the SkyMiles club. The word belonging implies a sense of commitment. As in, “I feel like I really belong here.”

The challenge of it all is in actually enacting (practicing) your commitments. Values are easy to define, and also easy to be deeply believed in. The challenge—for me as a human being, as well as for specific Jewish communities and for liberal religious movements in general—is enact these beliefs. I’m sure that every individual Jew and Jewish institution deeply holds the value of Jewish speech ethics (lashon ha-ra, motzi shem ra, rechilut). The challenge is in enacting those values. The same can be said about ritual practice: find me a Jew who doesn’t think that rest (shavat vayinafash) is important. The challenge is in making space for rest. (Ultimately, this challenge boils down to a question of autonomy. The 21^st century Jewish community can enforce neither Jewish speech ethics nor Shabbat observance, so long as individual Jews have autonomy.)

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One practical idea:

What if a community had a Brit Kehillah—with very well-defined, specific values. (Like Camp Coleman’s kavod, chesed, kehilla, and shalom—but maybe even more focused, like v’ahavta l’reiacha kamocha and betzelem elohim.) These values would need to penetrate every aspect of synagogue (or community) life. They would inform the text study at the first 10 minutes of every Executive Committee meetings—using deep, compelling, thought-provoking Jewish texts that deepen everyone’s understanding the values. The values would be a critical aspect of meeting any new person who wanted to belong to the community. They would be referenced in sermons. They would be known by every student in the religious school. So if, for example, little Adam or Hava had to be taken to the religious school director’s office, s/he would be able to articulate that his/her behavior didn’t demonstrate v’ahavta l’reiacha kamocha or betzelem elohim.