Shabbat Gathering: Being the ger.

Dear Chevrei, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Please note: On Friday, October 4, there will not be a Shabbat Gathering. Some of us are attending services for the second day of Rosh Hashanah and will be tuckered out. Ok?

Here we go.

When my family moved to San Francisco, we joined the JCC. We were immediately welcomed in a tight circle of friends. All of them belonged to the local Conservative shul. I had not yet converted. My second daughter came into the world after two miscarriages, a difficult pregnancy, and an emergency c-section. Lots of drama.

After a week in the neonatal ICU, she bulked up enough that we could take her home. In our new community, that also meant a lavish, catered oneg following the services and baby naming. When the moment arrived for the baby naming, my wife and first daughter were invited to the bema. I was not.

And, it was in that moment, I realized my family belonged to a shul where I, a ger, was not welcomed. Soon after that we became members of a Reform shul where I was welcomed and, eventually, converted.

Gers are part of the covenant.

At the beginning of this week’s parsha, Nitzavim, Moses is reminding Israel how they were invited to join the covenant with Hashem.

You stand this day, all of you, before the eternal your God: your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, the entire body of Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer, to enter into the covenant of the eternal your God, which the eternal your God is concluding with you this day, with its sanctions;

Congregation Shaarei Shamayim is the inclusive Jewish community in Madison. And that’s more than a slogan we use everywhere. At the upcoming High Holy Day services, look around you. Saying our membership is diverse is an understatement. I’m proud of that. In Talmud, it says Judaism is founded on three pillars: love for Hashem, love for our neighbor, and love for the stranger. I believe Hashem notices how we treat the stranger. And I believe we receive a special blessing for this. I believe that the strangers in our city will find our synagogue. Shaarei Shamayim means “gate of heaven." And the strangers around us know those gates are wide open and anyone can pass through.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Gut Shabbes!

All my love,
brian.