Dear Friends,
   Again--what a remarkable year it was! Just begin with the last month:

• Our incredible Shabbat celebrating Teddy's dedicated years of service.
• Two weeks ago, Ronit's bat mitzvah.
• Just before that on May 7 the incredible Shabbat morning of the B'nai Torah class.

Three great events; three amazing examples of Temple Micah community.

I could review our year this morning, both the highs and the lows. We suffered losses. We dealt with illness. Just this very same month of May, our community suffered the tragic death of a young mother, Ellen Trauben, who fought her illness for over a year and a half. So many people in this community helped the Trauben family during these months by bringing meals and doing other small tasks for them. This too was a great act of community. There were great moments of community and celebration and study--too many to recount them all. It was a year-like Dickens wrote of "The best of times, the worst of times.." It was like all time.

I would like to touch on simply a couple of things in this report:

First, the number of people who do incredibly generous, wonderful and important things for our community and do so behind the scenes without being noticed:

• from sending our contribution acknowledgements,
• to yahrzeit notices,
• to editing the Vine,
• to organizing our participation in Succot in April,
• to leading shiva services,
• to working on our chevra kadisha and as cemetery trustees,
• to teaching in our school,
• to organizing the Succot Fair,
• to the Purim auction,
• to the book fair,
• to Micah House,
• to keeping our office computers going,
• to the new web page,
• to volunteering in the office,
• to leading summer services,
• to organizing the holy days,
• to organizing and doing Hineini and Neighbors in Need,
• to organizing the onegs,
• to our many ongoing groups of all kind.

You name it-- so many activities and areas of volunteers that I have left off- something that I truly do not wish to do.

This is what makes our community an incredible one- the people. I never ceased to be amazed at the people in this community and their participation in what we do and what membership in this community means to so many.

I am interested this morning in touching on what it means to be a member of our community. My thinking on this subject is so informed by one of my wonderful experiences of the past year- the day I along with about nine other rabbis spent exploring issues of identity formation, community and ethnicity with Robert Putnam at Harvard. Robert Putnam may be familiar to many of you as the author of that wonderful book, Bowling Alone, and is an expert on community and identity in the modern world.

In thinking about membership in Temple Micah, it helps me to see membership in Temple Micah as analogous to choosing to live in a particular community. When someone is considering a move to an area they consider all kinds of things: parks, libraries, schools, shopping, museums, theaters, and who knows what else. In shopping for a synagogue, people are looking for all kinds of things as well. We need not list them-we all know them.

I am thinking about what our message is to who is considering us. I am thinking about how we make explicit what we are about or what in our better moments we strive to be about. What if we were to find ways, all kinds of ways, to communicate something like this--not only to prospective members, but to our current members as well.

In my mind Micah is a community that defines itself as centered on the three pillars established in Pirke Avot [Sayings of the Fathers]: Torah-study; Avodah-prayer; and G'milut chasadim-good deeds. This is who we are and what we strive to be about.

Torah: Our desire, or our desired norm and we have to be very careful with the language here, is that every member of Temple Micah participate in at least one of the wide variety of educational programs that we offer each year. For example, let us say that each year we were to post the titles of 10 books on our website and simply ask that each member of our community read at least one of them each year. These could be books of all kinds-- novels, history, Jewish thought, biography.

Prayer: In the area of prayer, we would like every member to join us for Shabbat worship at least 12 times a year--not because we want to monitor your prayer life, but because shabbat is when our community has a chance to see each other. Shabbat is when our community comes together. Shabbat is when we can get to know each other and talk and shmooze and share our concerns and ideas.

Finally, Good Deeds: At Micah we try and do our part in repairing the world. We would like every member to participate in a significant way in one of our projects during the year. Here the good deeds include from participation in a range of activities, from Underwear Month, to the Succoth Fair, to the Purim Auction, to the Succot in April, to name a few. Because sustaining ourselves is also a good deed.

What if we were to try and consider membership in this light and broaden the usual conversation when someone inquires about membership by asking what the dues are. We could say: "A financial commitment is only part of what being a member of our community is about. Our community is also about participation...". These types of activities are the things that are central to our community life.

I will be thinking more about the meaning of being part of this community in the coming days and weeks. And making the meaning of what we are about self evident to new comers. As we grow, it seems to me that this becomes increasingly important.

I have been so taken by the challenges represented in Putnam's work that I have taken the title of his book literally and not simply metaphorically. Next year, on Saturday night February 4, 2006, Temple Micah has reserved the entire Bethesda Naval Center Bowling Alley for a special havdalah program called "Temple Micah - Bowling Together". This is for everyone- bowlers and non-bowlers; and for non-bowlers they have pool, arcade games, and lounge area seating simply to shmooze. The youth group will be there. Bring your kids of any age: we will have those gutter balloons on some lanes. So, mark your calendars now: Saturday evening, February 4, Bowling Together.

Finally, I want to say a few words of thanks:

First, to the entire Board of Directors. You have had a very full year. Thank you for all your hard work.

Next, to our Board members who are leaving the Board: Bob Dorfman, Jacki Simon and Harlan Messenger. Your service was invaluable in furthering the work that we do here. Thank you for your dedication, your commitment and your precious time.

Lastly to Jonah, who is staying on the Board after completing his term as President. Jonah, look at how far you have brought us. I cannot believe it. A capital campaign underway, a much needed building expansion in the offing, a second rabbi beginning in a matter of days. Jonah, you took on many challenges and you met them all. You persevered, you acted, you led.  The entire Board knows better than anyone else your patience and wisdom. The entire congregation is in your debt. As the rabbi, I can only say thank you-in you I have a true friend. You are a total mensch. Let me lead the applause for you. [Standing ovation] Perhaps most important, thank you to Sallie for sharing Jonah with us these past two years. [Gift presented to Jonah]

We are an amazing congregation. I cannot believe how proud I am to be rabbi to this incredible community. God has blessed us with remarkable people.

I am ready for a quiet summer and an exciting year ahead.

Thank you.