Rabbi's Messages

Make Yourself At Home

on Monday, 21 December 2015.

It’s not easy walking into a synagogue for the first time.

Try to remember what it was like the first time you came to Kol Ami, whether it was last month or 25 years ago. How did it feel to enter a new place? Were the melodies familiar or unfamiliar? Did you feel comfortable striking up conversations with the people around you? What would have helped you to feel at home?

The Hebrew word for synagogue is “Beit K’nesset,” which means “Place of Gathering.” In its essence, a synagogue is a place for people to come together. In fact there is a long history of the synagogue being a place that welcomes guests. In medieval times, wayfarers and travelers on a long journey would often stop off at the synagogue for the evening service, and stay for a meal and a warm place to rest. (By the way, this is the origin of the tradition of chanting the Kiddush in the sanctuary, since guests would be staying after the service to eat.)

In modern times, the record is mixed. Sometimes entering a new synagogue can be an experience of welcome and hospitality. But sometimes it’s not. And we’ve all been there.

Last year, when Rabbi Steve Greenberg was here as our Scholar in Residence, he challenged us to think about the mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim (Hospitality or Welcoming Guests) in a different way. His specific challenge to us was to think about our synagogue as if it were our own home, and to behave accordingly.

Think about it. When a guest enters our home, we feel compelled to create a welcoming experience for them: to chat with them, to provide food or drink, to introduce them to others, to help them feel comfortable. We do so because, as a host, we feel responsible for the experience of each person who walks through the threshold.

Kol Ami is no different. In this communal home, we are all the hosts of whoever walks in the door.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the President of the Reform movement, speaks about this in terms of “Audacious Hospitality.” He calls on the image of Abraham and Sarah welcoming strangers into their tent in the desert. And he asserts that....

Audacious hospitality isn’t just a temporary act of kindness so people don’t feel excluded. It’s an ongoing invitation to be part of community—and a way to spiritually transform ourselves in the process.

Being audaciously hospitable is a way to build our community, to help guests and visitors and potential new members feel at home in our congregation, and to create closeness between ourselves as members of the community. And it is an idea that goes back to the very origins of Judaism.

I look forward to seeing you soon in our communal home – our Beit K’nesset.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Micah Streiffer