| What does it mean to be a member of Adat Shalom? Just as marriage partners agree to a Ketubah (contract) that spells out the mutual expectations and shared hopes for those people who are seriously and joyously committing to form a "community of two, " Adat Shalom members should similarly try to be clear about what we expect from each other and what we are prepared to give to our community. |
This statement has been developed to articulate the type of active, fulfilling involvement that we, as a community, hope members will be inspired to seek within Adat Shalom. The writing of this document represents the continuation of a process, started when our congregation was formed, of describing what we stand for and what we strive for as a community. In addition to providing new and potential members with a vision of what we are, the very process of describing the type of involvement we aspire to in our communal life helps to enhance our identity as a religious community with shared beliefs and mutual commitments to one another. Thus, this document is meant to be one more brick in the foundation principles of our community, joining the previously agreed upon documents: our original Statement of Principles written in 1988 and updated in 1992, as well as the Shabbat Guidelines, Tzedakah Guidelines, and Gemilut Chesed Guidelines adopted by the membership over the past few years.
In many different forums, members have
expressed their gratitude for what Adat Shalom has added to
their lives. There are many reasons that people seek a
spiritual/religious community such as ours: for a sense of camaraderie
and sharing in striving to lead more complete, enriched lives;
for an emphasis on acceptance and appreciation of where
people are coming from instead of a rigid set of judgments
about where others should already be in terms of religious
observance; for the excitement about learning and the deepening
of knowledge of what Judaism has to teach us about
leading more fulfilling lives; for the emphasis on providing
opportunities for everyone to be involved in and to contribute
something to the community.
At its best, being part of Adat Shalom helps us
through hard times, enhances the joyous times, and provides
endless opportunities for growth and learning. Most members
come to treasure their affiliation with Adat Shalom more than
they ever expected to when they first joined the community.
Adat Shalom provides an opportunity for each member to feel
included in a warm, friendly, stimulating environment where
individuals can enrich connections to Jewish roots and create
nurturing connections to others who have similarly embarked
on the path of growing Jewishly. We believe that it is through
contributing to something beyond our limited individual selves
that we can create meaning in our lives. Essential to the spirit
that makes Adat Shalom so special is our connectedness to
each other and the widespread sense of emotional ownership
of the congregation by members themselves.
If our congregation is to provide positive and
meaningful experiences for members, considerable
volunteerism is needed from those individuals. We believe
that the sense of responsibility necessary to inspire volunteerism
will flow out of our recognition that Adat Shalom is a
community of meaning for each of us and worthy of perpetuation.
We therefore need to balance the awareness of what we get
from our involvement in Adat Shalom with an appreciation
for what we need to give back to the congregation to enable
it to flourish.
Adat Shalom has traditionally relied heavily on
volunteers to meet the congregation's needs. Early on,
financial considerations led us to minimize our reliance on
professionals and others who we might have employed to nurture
and sustain our congregation. However, our early experience
taught us that, financial considerations aside, it is each member's
personal commitment to serve the synagogue with hands and
voices that is the backbone of a religious community that
aspires to be and remain rich, alive, and fulfilling.
We are hardly the first to discover the importance
of serving the community. The mitzvah of community service
is rooted in tradition. Pirke Avot teaches that the world rests
upon three pillars; avodah (service) is one of them. Indeed,
we have learned that when we work together, we breathe life
into our community, finding in it a common purpose that
enables us to contribute to each other's lives as Jews and as
human beings. We are a congregation of volunteers in no
small measure because we believe that we can create and
sustain a vibrant, spiritual religious community only if each
of us assumes direct, personal responsibility for some facet
of our congregation. When we feel responsible for our
community and stand ready to serve when needed, we come
to value and cherish it far more than if we contributed only
financially. Paradoxically, our service makes the community
more valuable to us. Working together helps us move closer
to one another.
In defining our obligations to each other and to
the congregation, we must be sensitive to the tension between
the needs of the community and the autonomy and freedom
of each member to define what is meaningful for them.
Volunteerism should not be generated by feelings of guilt or
through fear of negative judgments should one fail to step
forward to offer time and effort. True avodah must come
from the heart of each and every person; we hope that our
community will engender this spirit.
Two concrete obligations of Adat Shalom
members, as stated in our congregation's bylaws, are payment of
congregational dues and the hosting of a specified number of
Shabbat kiddush luncheons. What other ways might we
envision that members might contribute of themselves to the
community? We suggest a model where every member comes
to think of themselves as part of at least one of the many
subgroups that are contained within the congregation. As we
grow larger, it becomes increasingly important for members
to have a sense of belonging to a smaller, more intimate group
that can offer an additional source of identity and camaraderie
within the larger community. In many cases, this could take
the form of committee involvement. However, some people
prefer to be involved in other ways that also provide
opportunities to participate.
Groups that provide members with some mixture
of personal contact with others and work on behalf of the
congregation include such ongoing activities as the Parents
and Babies/Toddlers group, the choir, the Rosh Chodesh
women's group; ongoing service groups such as the ushers
for our religious services or holiday planning group; and the
more temporary work groups such as the Annual Retreat
planning group. For members who find it difficult to commit
to regular meetings, it is possible to volunteer for such labor-
intensive tasks as mailings or phone calling. Along similar
lines, volunteering to be on the Life Cycle Committee's list
of potential "Mitzvah Providers" offers an opportunity
to get
involved when members are needed to help others in the
community in times of personal hardship or loss (for example,
attending shiva minyans, visiting the sick, preparing meals for
families with new children, and helping families in crisis).
Of course, we recognize that people's
involvement in any long-term relationship goes through natural
ebb
and flow cycles of intensity. Similarly, members of our
community need to feel the freedom to become involved at
a level and a pace that is comfortable to them and as well
as to feel understood when they need to pull back when they
feel overextended in their lives. We do not want our
congregation's emphasis on participation to become intrusive
or guilt-inducing. Rather, we want that emphasis to be a
manifestation of our belief that the community we build belongs
to all of us and can only thrive if an attitude of cooperation
and caring is fostered among the membership.
If we can make the group and volunteer
opportunities variable and inspirational enough, then it would
be reasonable to expect that everyone should be involved in at
least one area of congregational life that interests or inspires
them. Thus, we would augment our current expectations of
membership to include not only financial contributions and
preparation of our oneg luncheons a few times a year but also
to include some contribution of effort and involvement. Such
avodah both strengthens the congregation as well as enhances
each member's sense of belonging to the community. Our
hope is that everybody should, in some way, have an identity
as an active member of a smaller group within the larger
community context. Such identity would ideally have the
combined effect of perpetuating our tradition of volunteerism
and high levels of participation within the Adat Shalom
ommunity and enhancing our ability to maintain our sense of
intimacy even as we grow in numbers.
These guidelines, were approved by the Adat Shalom board on 2/19/95 and ratified by the Congregation on 5/21/95. Members of the congregation had opportunities for input to this statement throughout the process of development.