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“Census
and Consensus”
By: Rabbi J. N. Ronald
With the arrival of the fall season to the Pee Dee region, a number of
changes converge in our lives.
Those with children or grandchildren must modify their schedules for
school and extra-curricular activities. Depending
on our respective vocational occupations, the pace of work and civic life
accelerates from that during the summer months. And, the fruits of all our
secular endeavors turn on the time, energy, and
planning we set at the start
of any defined period of activity.
What applies in the realm of the everyday can be carried over to the
domain of the sacred. The welfare
of the Jewish community is secured and maintained by the efforts of individuals,
friends, families, and committees. Here in the Pee Dee region, Beth Israel
Congregation constitutes the hub of Judaism.
With no federation, Jewish community center, Hebrew academy or other
organizations to rely upon, the synagogue emerges to assume the roles it has
historically served: a house of worship, a house of assembly and a house of
study.
As a house of
worship (beit tefillah) Beth
Israel has shone as a lighthouse of Torah for the area since 1912. In a region
where enlightenment and spiritual progress were not always welcome, Beth
Israel’s commitment to the values of reason, ethics and social justice have
helped our congregation stand out against the religious and cultural landscape
of the Pee Dee. As
in
private.
On the other hand, no sound reading of Jewish history in the South would presume to deny the critical role of the Jewish home in perpetuating Judaism. For the Sages of the Talmud, the Jewish home is a mikdash me’ at, a small sanctuary alongside the synagogue, and consequently a pillar of Jewish continuity. On the other hand, the congregation provides a place for the celebration of the Sabbath, festivals, and the life-cycle events which is uniquely intense in its dynamism. (Anyone who has ever participated in a bar/bat mitzvah hosted at a hotel will note the qualitative difference in the spiritual experience.)
As a house of
study (beit midrash), our temple opens
it’s doors to any soul in search of the wisdom found in Torah, e.g. “ That
which is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor,” averred
the sage Hillel, “Now, go and study”
Together these three houses of Judaism merge into the synagogue and
define our ongoing mission as a nation of the covenant of Abraham and Sarah, as
well as serving as a humane light to all of the families of the earth.
There is no denying the vast scale of difference between Israel and the
world as well as Beth Israel Congregation and the rest of the Jewish world.
The prophet Isaiah described the
Jewish people as “a drop in the bucket of the nations” and so we are 13
million or so Jews in a humanity numbering some six billion. In our little
community, we comprise, perhaps, seventy households.
Yet the Torah records that it was with seventy souls that our father
Jacob descended into Egypt, only to emerge generations later, “too many
To learn more about Rabbi Ronald, go to www.rabbironald.com.
