G’mar tov.
As many of you know, I am a potter.
The process of making pottery is as old as Judaism itself – start with a lump of clay and make something useful out of it. Usually what I make is functional – a plate to eat off of, a jar to hold something, a mug to drink out of; occasionally, if I’m lucky, what I make turns out beautiful.
I spend a good deal of time watching a ball of clay go around in a circle on the wheel, and contemplate the two signs hanging on the wall in my studio:
The first is by Daniel Rhodes, potter and author from Alfred University – “The potter approaches the clay with just his hands. There is no intervening superstructure, no frozen or mechanized system, no network of authority between him and his work. The forms he makes are his alone.”
The second quote on my wall is from Isaiah – “But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand.”
So which are we – the clay or the potter? Or both?
We at TSS are molding ourselves. A little more than a year ago, we were unformed and had only the rough outlines of a functioning congregation. We have accomplished a great deal since then. But we are definitely still a work in progress, and we are still forming and developing and have not yet reached our final shape.
We certainly are functional – we have a wonderful spiritual leader in Cantor Sussman, and I enjoy worship services more than I ever did before. We have a leadership structure and committees and religious school and adult education and social events and I am very proud of the warmth and energy and innovation that we have applied to build a congregational family together. So we are functional, but are we beautiful?
Especially at Yom Kippur, we contemplate what our next year will be like. Hopefully we will all be written in the Book of Life and, looking back a year from now, we will say that it was a successful year. Issues of the Book of Life are up to God, and we are the clay as far as those big issues are concerned.
As a congregation, however, we are the potter, and whether our Temple is beautiful or merely functional is up to us.
To make us beautiful, we need congregants, so please join. If you are already a member, ask your friends to join us.
To make us beautiful, we need money. Your dues and donations are a necessity to keep the Temple going. There is no sugar daddy or Big Brother organizational help or endowment fund or deep pockets here. It’s just us, and your money allows us to remain in existence for another year.
To make our Temple beautiful, more than anything, we need involvement – we need congregants to come to worship, to participate in activities, and come to study. This is a ground up organization. Like the potter with a lump of clay, there is no overriding authority – what we are and what we become are up to us, and us alone. We can be a bare-bones Temple that is functional for life-cycle events and otherwise sits on the shelf gathering dust. Or alternatively, we can be a vibrant, energetic congregational family that worships and studies and socializes together. In this respect, we are all the potters, and we define the outcome. I encourage you to be part of creating the Temple that YOU want.
May you have an easy fast and may you be sealed for a good year.
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