Dear Friends,
Our Capital Campaign is winding down. Are you on board? The very nature of Temple Micah holds that as a matter of religious principle, we all do our part. This is as true for our Capital Campaign as it is for any act of tikkun olam that we engage in. The Jewish Mystical tradition teaches us that there is a corner of the world awaiting each of us to perform an act of repair that we alone are capable of performing--so, too, in our campaign. We go forward as a community only if all of us--each and every one--do our part and does it with the greatest generosity that we can muster.

I truly regard this as a sacred opportunity for each member of our sacred community to make a statement about what we, as a congregation, believe regarding the future of American Judaism. We represent such an exciting alternative in American Jewish life, a Reform congregation that embodies such fundamental Jewish values as modesty, creativity and study. This campaign allows our community to simultaneously raise money and expand in a manner that both embraces and enhances our identity. We cannot succeed, though, without each one of us doing the utmost in order to achieve the congregation's goals. If you have not yet made your pledge, I urge you to generously do so now.

The Capital Campaign raises for us an even larger question. How can we be the Temple Micah that we want to be? That is the question that engages me so frequently. It presupposes that we have a shared a vision of Temple Micah, and I think for the most part, we do. The Temple Micah that we want to be, I believe, is best characterized by the term "sacred community." A sacred community is a place where people, in recognizing the holy in each other, feel both connected and responsible for one another. A Jewish sacred community cherishes the learning derived from its sacred texts that guides its path through the challenges the world brings. It is a community engaged in tikkun, repair. It celebrates the holy seasons of the life cycle and the year as a group. A Jewish sacred community is bonded and dedicated and searching in ways that are real and palpable.

All of this stands distinct from the contemporary American synagogue that people join for such "services" as b'nai mitzvah, rabbis on call, study groups or youth programs. A sacred community is guided by its principles rather than by the necessity to throw together programs that will attract participation. In the Jewish world, there are very few models of sacred community. At Micah, we are part of a vanguard of congregations that is striving to discover how to be one.
That is part of the reason that we are going "Bowling Together" in February.

I read Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community in 2000, shortly in 2000, shortly after it was published. It dramatically impacted the way I think about synagogue life. The book challenged me to consider ways that Micah could be what I call a "face to face" community, one in which people really get to know each other. In a world and a city where so many of us are defined by our jobs, a sacred community is a special haven. I dream of Micah as a community where our relationships outside the synagogue serve to strengthen the synagogue, where our shared experience of religious life deepens our friendships. At Micah, we are a community that studies, prays and engages in social action projects together. Why not go bowling, just for the heck of it, and have a great evening in which families and singles, younger and older, bowler and non-bowler can mingle, snack, socialize, converse and have a great time? Together. Folks who want to can even bowl!! It is a way for different segments of the congregation to meet each other.

As the congregation grows, this is a challenge that we face. How can the Friday evening Shabbat service crowd get to know the Shabbat morning crowd? How can the religious school crowd get to know the Shabbat crowd? Or, to borrow from my Rosh Hashanah sermon, how can the hand Jews and the heart Jews and the head Jews get to know each other? How can the new member meet the long time macher Bowling Together was the fun-sounding, whimsical response that popped into my head on my flight home from Boston last winter, when I was one of 10 rabbis who spent a day with Putnam learning about the challenges to community in America.
The Bethesda Naval Bowling Center is a great place. It has that wonderful '50s ambiance reminiscent of Fonzi and Happy Days. It is entirely non-smoking and the snack bar offers wonderfully unhealthy food. What could be better? Now, all we need is you for a really great evening.

Bowling Together does not make us a sacred community. It does, I believe, take us a step down the right road--or, perhaps more accurately, the right lane. So, too, does contributing to our Capital Campaign.

Shalom,
Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel