Some of you have wondered, and the bravest among you have asked; what am I going to talk about during my last High Holy Day sermons. As one person said to me: “It’s your last High Holy Days here. You can say whatever you want!” What are they going to do, fire you? I smile at that because, as many of you have chastised me over the years, I always speak about whatever I want. This Yom Kippur, I would like to leave you with a part of my vision of the inclusiveness a Jewish community should embody.
Tomorrow, as we do every year, we will read: You stand this day, all of you, before the ETERNAL your God—your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your women, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer.
One of the many reasons the early leaders of the Reform Movement chose to read this passage on Yom Kippur morning is the inclusive definition of who is a part of the Jewish community. But, in the 19th Century, they could not envision how to include “the stranger within your camp” into the Jewish community. For them, it was a community made up solely of Jews who looked like them. But, this Torah text and others are clear, not only Jews are a part of the Jewish community, non-Jews are as well.
Our portion is crystal clear in its definition. Everyone, from the highest officials to those who have the least, regardless of gender or age, race or ethnicity who stand with the Jewish community, constitute the Jewish community.
Today, we are comfortable welcoming, the LGBTQ+ community and every racial, every ethnic group as members of Congregation Albert. We welcome into membership non-Jewish spouses and partners regardless of their religion. They can even choose to remain members of Congregation Albert after they, and their Jewish spouse/partner separate, or the Jewish partner dies. But, what of the non-Jew exploring Judaism with the potential of conversion? What of the non-Jew who comes to study with us, pray with us, congregate with us, who wants to be a part of our community but does not want to convert, who wants to be a part of our community. If you are on Zoom, look at the participant list, I guarantee that there are a significant number of non-Jews participating with us on this Erev Yom Kippur.
The question is not, who is a Jew, but who can be a part of our Jewish community and our congregation.
There are three definitions of membership in a community. 1) Memory, 2) Covenant, and 3) Holiness.
1) Memory. We are united by a common meta-story, the Exodus from Egypt and revelation at Sinai. Every year we recount the tale of our transformation from slaves to free people and the forging of our community. We ignore that we were not alone. Others joined us as we crossed the Red Sea and chose to transform ourselves at Sinai. Exodus 12:48 specifically commands to include the stranger who lives among us: “as a citizen of the country.” A non-Jew, who lives as a part of the Jewish community is not Jewish, but, is a full part of the community.
This inclusiveness is reinforced in the first piece of Jewish liturgy found in Deuteronomy 26:11 and recited each year in the Passover Seder: “You shall rejoice in all the good that the ETERNAL your God has given to you and to your house, you the Levite and the stranger who lives with you.”
Logging into, and downloading the memory, is a conscious choice. There are Jews who choose to forget and separate themselves from the Jewish community, and non-Jews who choose to remember and cleave to us.
2) Covenant. Torah also teaches that membership in the Covenant with God is porous. In each generation we have to choose to be a part of the covenant. Ritually we have four ceremonies for Jews to express that choice: Brit, entering the covenant at birth; Bar/Bat Mitzvah upon at age 13; Confirmation at the beginning of young adulthood; Conversion to Judaism for adults. The ritual of Conversion is for the non-Jew who wants to be Jewish. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a ritual or ceremony to admit a non-Jew to the Jewish community without converting. They were just welcomed.
3) Holiness. Tomorrow afternoon we will read Leviticus 19, the holiness code from our Svihov scroll which survived the Shoah. Upon my arrival at Congregation Albert, I chose to have us read this passage from this scroll as a reminder to each of us that being holy means acting Godly, even when the rest of the world does not. The Holiness Code commands us to act in ways that are kind and benefit Jew and non-Jew alike. In this way we become holy as God is holy. Holiness is feeding the hungry, clothing the stranger, paying workers their earned wages, caring for those in our community, Jews or non-Jews, who cannot provide for themselves. We are called upon to love our fellow Jews, not always easy, and to love the non-Jews who choose to live among us.
Teens, and adults, love to point out to me that these laws are basic moral, ethical principles of living. They are not exclusively Jewish behaviors, non-Jews value them and do them too. Yes. That is the point.
Membership in the Jewish community is multidimensional. One can claim membership through Memory and/or Covenant and/or Holiness. One can be Jewish and be a part of the community. One can be non-Jewish and a part of the community.
Yet, even in this open, pluralistic vision of the Jewish community, there are boundaries in which every member of the Jewish community, Jew or non-Jew must fall within.
One cannot be a part of the Jewish community if s/he believes is a believer in another religion, believes in more than one God and/or believes the Messiah has come. These people can be our closest friends, yet, cannot be a part of our Jewish community. Our partnerships with the multitude of religious groups in Albuquerque attests to this. But they cannot be counted among those who dwell among us. But, many non-Jews fall within these boundaries and should be counted as members of our Jewish community, if they so desire.
Our By-laws state: “Any person of the Jewish faith or such person’s non-Jewish partner, eighteen years of age or older, who wishes to associate with the Congregation and accepts the responsibilities of membership will become a member on approval of such person’s membership by the Board of Trustees. In the event of the death or divorce of a Jewish member, the non-Jewish partner may continue his or her membership.”
We already allow non-Jews who have Jewish partners, even if they are members of another religion to become members and remain so as long as they want. We count among our members practicing Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims.
Even so, there are many non-Jews who fall within these boundaries, they do not believe in more than one God and that the Messiah has not yet come. are not married to Jews but want to be a part of our Congregation Albert. Why do we exclude them?
In the Galilee you can see the ruins of synagogues that date from the 1st Century BCE through the 2nd Century CE. On the surviving walls and columns you can see the names of the donors who contributed to sustaining those synagogues. Yes, the tradition of donor plaques dates to antiquity. Among those names, you will find a plethora of non-Jewish names. In those days, non-Jews who did not want to formally convert to Judaism were members of those shuls. When the Romans made associating with Jews and studying Judaism punishable by death, the practice stopped. Today, that threat no longer exists.
What if we were to begin a conversation about changing our membership criteria to read: “Any person of the Jewish faith, or who is not a practicing member of another faith, or is the spouse or partner of a Jewish member of the Congregation, who wishes to associate with the Congregation and accepts the responsibilities of membership will become a member on approval of such person’s membership by the Board of Trustees.”? I believe these non-Jews who, through memory, covenant, or holiness, belong to the Jewish community, would enhance our congregational family with their energy and talent. We currently have appropriate policies that certain lay positions can only be filled by Jews, for example President or the chair of the Religious Practices or School committees.
On page 328 of our Yom Kippur prayerbook, there is a quote from Isaiah 2:2-3, which has been in every Reform prayerbook since 1898.
וְהָיָ֣ה ׀ בְּאַחֲרִ֣ית הַיָּמִ֗ים נָכ֨וֹן יִֽהְיֶ֜ה הַ֤ר בֵּית־יְהוָה֙ בְּרֹ֣אשׁ הֶהָרִ֔ים וְנִשָּׂ֖א מִגְּבָע֑וֹת וְנָהֲר֥וּ אֵלָ֖יו כָּל־הַגּוֹיִֽם׃ וְֽהָלְכ֞וּ עַמִּ֣ים רַבִּ֗ים וְאָמְרוּ֙ לְכ֣וּ ׀ וְנַעֲלֶ֣ה אֶל־הַר־יְהוָ֗ה אֶל־בֵּית֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יַעֲקֹ֔ב וְיֹרֵ֙נוּ֙ מִדְּרָכָ֔יו וְנֵלְכָ֖ה בְּאֹרְחֹתָ֑יו...׃
“It shall come to pass, in the fullness of time, that the mountain of the House of God shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Then many peoples shall say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, to the House of the God of Jacob. And they shall say: Teach us Your ways, that we may walk in Your paths.”
It is time for us to open our doors to anyone who is not a practicing member of another faith who wishes to join us.
Only then do we fulfill the words of tomorrow morning’s Torah Portion, the challenge at Sinai, and the prophecy of Isaiah.
G’mar Chatimah Tovah
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