Adat Shalom offers each member a meaningful place within a vibrant, caring and intentional community. The congregation becomes a major part of the social network of many of its members, a place where deep friendships are formed, where members turn to celebrate joyous occasions and to be supported when they are in need. Participation and voluntarism are central to Adat Shalom's culture, and everything we do comes back to the idea of kehilah, of community.
Adat Shalom is a community that:
We have adopted a set of principles, a living document, that the congregation reappraises periodically and revises or replaces as necessary.(1)
Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation is dedicated to the moral and
spiritual fulfillment of its members and to K’lal Yisrael (the Jewish People). We are
active participants in the Reconstructionist movement as members of the Chesapeake Region
of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. We affirm the idea that Judaism is the
evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people. Members of our community explore,
enjoy, and evaluate Judaism in all of its aspects. We are determined to make the process
of revitalizing and reconstructing Jewish civilization a responsible, participatory,
democratic undertaking.
We believe that Judaism encompasses the entire cultural legacy of the Jewish people.
Religion is central; Jewish spiritual insights and religious teachings give meaning and
purpose to our lives. However, our creativity—as expressed through art, music, dance,
drama, languages, and literature—and our relationship with the land of Israel itself,
are also integral parts of our Jewish spirituality and culture. Drawing on the richness of
historical Judaism, we seek meaningful ways to express our Jewishness and to enrich our
lives. In this search, people take precedence over doctrine, and communities over
institutions.
We affirm that we live in two civilizations—one secular, one religious—
requiring a strong commitment to both our Jewish and our American identities, as we
emphasize social justice and personal ethics from both realms. We are engaged in the
ongoing task of building a relationship to our Judaism that is faithful to our past and
relevant to the present. Just as Jewish civilization has adapted to new circumstances
throughout Jewish history, so must it adapt to 21st-century North American society. We
embrace a maximalist, progressive, and egalitarian Judaism in which study, worship, and
action pervade both our religious and our secular lives. And we do this within a
participatory, voluntary context, knowing that a strong communal life is central to
realizing all of the goals and values contained herein.
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We strive to be a community that welcomes diversity. Thus, we encourage
members with a wide range of prior experiences and understandings of Judaism to freely
express themselves. Freedom of expression encompasses respectful differences of religious
opinion. We seek a more reliable basis for Jewish unity and the future of Judaism than
mere uniformity of doctrine and practice. We are Jews in search of contemporary, reasoned,
and still-evolving ways of thinking about our Judaism, in short, ba’alei
she’elah: Jews with questions.
We strongly affirm the principle of inclusivity in all areas of Jewish life by welcoming all Jews, regardless of their sexual
orientation, as full participants in the religious practices of our congregation. We also
welcome as members interfaith families, families with adopted children, people with
disabilities, and individuals of all ages. While we affirm the importance of the family in
Jewish culture, we also strive to fully integrate singles, single parents, and childless
couples into Jewish life and to make them full, active participants in our community. We
understand Jewish spirituality as a shared journey from which no one should be excluded.
Removing attitudinal barriers is as important as removing architectural or procedural
barriers. Moreover, Torah—which we emphasize as ethical instruction—is for
everyone, regardless of disability, economic status, ethnic origin, gender, or sexual
orientation. Although the American Jewish community’s legacy of homogeneity has
created barriers for adults and children of non-European ancestry, we explicitly welcome,
not only Jews of Sephardic and Mizrachi backgrounds, but also Hispanic, Asian, Native
American, and African-American Jews, as well as interracial families. We encourage our
non-Jewish members to participate actively within our community’s religious, social,
educational, and organizational life, including alternative practices in cases where
tradition limits non-Jews’ involvement in religious rituals.
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The study of Torah, for ourselves and our children, is the cornerstone of
our community. We understand Torah study broadly to include both the original text and the
cumulative varied experiences and traditions of the Jewish people through the ages.
Lifelong learning at Adat Shalom encompasses Jewish
civilization in all of its aspects, with a focus on developing skills such as Hebrew
proficiency, as well as the process of "wrestling with tradition" as a means of
making it our own. Our goal is to enable every member to share his or her knowledge and
questions with others in the Adat Shalom community.
Our ties to our Jewish past and our sense of the secular present often pull us in opposite
directions. We seek to find ways to merge those two sensibilities while remaining true to
both. Thus, while respecting tradition, we are willing to bring changes to the law and
practice of religion. We respect Halakha (Jewish law) as a guide and as a sign of past
convictions and value judgments, and affirm the importance of studying and understanding
the tradition even as we reconstruct it. In the realm of ritual practice, we recognize the
value and beauty of tradition, but we reject the notion that it represents Divinely
ordained commands. We accord tradition "a vote but not a veto", especially in
matters of personal status. We are prepared to have the law changed by Jews themselves,
with rabbis and lay people acting in responsible concert.
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We strive to create a covenantal community,
in which individuals faithfully support one another. We are sensitive to the tension
between the needs of community and the autonomy of each member. We embrace economic
diversity in our membership by establishing fair-share giving guidelines and dues
flexibility for those with limited resources. We are a participatory community that
emphasizes lay leadership and volunteerism, because we believe that we can create and
sustain a vibrant religious community only if each of us assumes direct, personal
responsibility for some facet of our congregational life. True Avodah must come from the
heart of each and every person—a notion our community strives to engender in its
members.
This principle is exemplified by the committment which led us to fund our building at Persimmon Tree Lane through the individual
contributions of our members, rather than reliance on a few large donations, and to design
it with great community input. As a result of these endeavors, our spiritual community is
now housed in a beautiful and uplifting structure. The effort and involvement of the
community in bringing this to pass is testimony to the fact that Adat Shalom is much more
than a building.
Worship in our congregation is based on the traditional Jewish liturgy, modified by
contemporary and evolving Jewish values and culture. Through intimate, participatory
services, we seek to discover ways to sense and manifest the divine presence in our lives.
Despite our diverse religious views, we commit ourselves to collective and individual
"God-wrestling" [ ‘Yisra-el’]—grappling ceaselessly with the
central questions of theology, the infinite, and the divine. As Reconstructionists, our
diverse views of God converge in an emphasis on godliness. We value what Mordecai Kaplan
called "the Life, Love, and Intelligence of the Universe", which infuses all of
creation with a sense of transcendence and impels us to improve the world and ourselves.
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Shabbat has been described as a day of creative rest, a day of soul-calm
and tranquility, a sanctuary in time that helps us rise above the pressures of daily
existence and realize what makes life worthwhile. While we honor these visions, we
acknowledge the dilemma that traditional ritual observance, in the form of many proscribed
behaviors, presents for modern-day Jews. We believe that the
value of Shabbat may be realized in a number of ways, both traditional and creative.
Therefore we encourage each member to develop an ongoing appreciation for the blessings of
Shabbat by reconstructing traditional customs and experimenting with creative and new
forms of Shabbat observance. In this way, we hope to develop a meaningful, evolving
relationship with Shabbat so that this day may continue to offer our community its potent
influence in sanctifying and beautifying Jewish life.
Belonging to a community is central to Reconstructionist ideology. Thus, we gather on
Shabbat to enjoy one another’s company as well as to pray and study. A hallmark of
our Shabbat celebration is the weekly potluck dairy Oneg lunch,
which is prepared and hosted by all members in rotation. Gathering to share this most
basic human activity—eating—encourages people to build the interpersonal
connections that make Adat Shalom a community.
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We feel connected to Jews everywhere, across time and space, by our
religious beliefs, our traditions, and our common history. We view being part of the
Jewish people as a source of pride and inspiration and as a great privilege; we also
acknowledge the attendant responsibilities and obligations of that sense of peoplehood. We
believe that all Jews have the right to emigrate to Eretz Israel, and that all Jews,
everywhere, are entitled to basic freedoms, including that of religious expression, which
we consider to be an inalienable right for all human beings.
We strongly support the State of Israel and recognize
its central importance to Jewish cultural and spiritual survival. We encourage the
strengthening of our ties with the land and people of Israel through visits, idea-sharing,
communication, tzedakah, and advocacy. We support efforts to strengthen progressive
Western values within Israel and to build a vital liberal religious movement there. Even
as we affirm our Zionist values, we assert the responsibility of diaspora Jews to offer
critiques of Israeli society and policies of the Israeli state.
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Our tradition bids us to align our values and beliefs with the ways we
conduct our daily lives. Central to Judaism’s codes of ethical conduct is the notion
of Redifat Tzedek, pursuing justice in every aspect of our lives and our communities.
Jewish ethics that help to create a more just world can be divided into three traditional
areas: Tzedakah, in its narrow sense of supporting good in the world through financial
contributions; Gemilut Chesed, performing acts of lovingkindness for others; and Tikkun
Olam, repairing the world through social action.
We fulfill the Mitzvah of Tzedakah through Ma’aser
(tithing), the traditional obligation to withhold part of our income for the advancement
of righteousness and justice. With so many demands on our financial resources, we take to
heart the high priority Jewish tradition places on supporting those causes and individuals
closest to us—including the support and maintenance of our own spiritual community.
We also take seriously our responsibility to give financial support to the larger Jewish
community here and abroad as well as to organizations working for social justice in our
communities and around the world.
We fulfill the Mitzvah of Gemilut Chesed by welcoming
visitors to our services (Hachnasat Orchim); visiting the sick and assisting them and
their families (Bikkur Cholim); and comforting bereaved congregants through practical
assistance and consolation (Nichum Avelim). We resist the tendency to leave the
performance of these Mitzvot to professionals. Members are challenged continually to
expand the ways in which they fulfill this Mitzvah.
The Mitzvah of Tikkun Olam obliges us to work toward the
prevention of hunger, homelessness, disease, ignorance, abuse, and political oppression
among all people as well as to work toward preserving the health of the global ecosystem
upon which all life depends. We recognize that while charitable acts have great value,
Tikkun Olam may be best achieved by empowering those who are disenfranchised. We seek to
reach out to, and work in partnership with, others with whom we share a common vision.
Ultimately, the true measure of our commitment to the advancement of righteousness and
justice in the world is our actions, not our words or prayers. We emphasize that acts
supporting social justice, alongside prayer and study, are an essential part of our
spiritual practice.
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We affirm our commitment to perpetuate our Jewish heritage by providing
programs that enrich Jewish family life. Educating our
youth requires the collaboration of family, school, and community. Our Torah School is a supplemental school—it
supplements, but cannot supplant, the home as the primary forum for Jewish learning. We
support our families in instilling in our children an identification with, pride in, and
commitment to Judaism and the Jewish people; an appetite for life-long Jewish learning; a
commitment to live by core Jewish values; and a sense of joy and fulfillment from Jewish
observances.
Adat Shalom is also committed to facilitating the formal and informal Jewish educational
needs of post-B’nai Mitzvah youth and encouraging their
participation in the life of the synagogue. We recognize the need to reach out to those
who are not formally affiliated with a youth group and to college-age youth living away
from home. Our goal is to ensure that the children of our members mature into adulthood
with a positive connection to synagogue life and Jewish civilization.
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Active participation is an essential part of membership in
the Adat Shalom community, and the extent of that participation is limited only by
one’s energy, initiative, and imagination. We strive to nurture one another’s
spiritual growth within a climate of mutual caring and responsibility among members of all
ages, and we call on our members to make the ongoing commitment we have to one another the
bedrock of our entire community.
We stand by these Principles, but also know that learning and growing spiritually are
ongoing processes, requiring continual exploration and refinement. Therefore, we encourage
the congregation to develop additional guidelines, that expand upon, and operationalize,
these Principles. Join us as we continue working to put these principles into practice.
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To learn about our history and the creation of our building reflecting these principles link to Lech Lechah.
(1)The first Statement of Principles was adopted by the then newly-formed congregation in 1988, while a second, longer Statement was approved by the congregation on June 14, 1992 (13 Sivan 5752). During the ensuing ten years, as Adat Shalom’s membership expanded, so did the scope of our vision. It became evident that, while the core values that inspired the first two Statements remained strong, the 1992 Statement no longer fully reflected the concerns and aspirations of our congregation. Therefore, this third revised Statement was adopted by the congregation at the Annual Meeting on June 2, 2002 (22 Sivan 5762).
Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation
7727 Persimmon Tree Lane
Bethesda, MD 20817
E-mail info@adatshalom.net
Phone: 301-767-3333 x106 | FAX: 301-767-3340
Shabbat Services: Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.
We are an affiliate of the Jewish
Reconstructionist Federation
and part of the Chesapeake Region of
the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (CRJRF)