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June_shma_x.qxd:Layout 1 5/30/07 2:14 PM Page 6 otherwise affiliate with Conservative congregations. They also bring greater availability of kosher foods, Judaica stores, and intense Jewish learning experiences. 7. The suburban Jewish community is no longer dominated by nuclear Jewish families focusing institutional attention exclusively upon their children. Today an array of household types abound: never married, divorced, widowed, single and/or single-parent adults, second or third marriages, couples without children, empty nesters, senior citizens, gay or lesbian households, intermarrieds, and so forth. 8. As the huge baby-boomer generation sends its offspring into adulthood, and contemplates retirement, Jewish communal life faces a range of new challenges for life-long Jewish engagement. A Judaism focused on children will no longer suffice. The future of most of non-Orthodox American Jews will be determined by the degree to which suburban living remains compatible with sustaining Jewish identity. Herb Gans identified the onset of that process, a half century ago. In 2007, Jewish communal life must continue to seed and reseed the infrastructure that has emerged as the lifeline of the world’s preeminent Diaspora community. Temple and Synagogue Neil Gillman T Neil Gillman teaches Jewish Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary and is Chair of the Sh’ma Advisory Committee. June 2007 Sivan 5767 To subscribe: 877-568-SHMA www.shma.com 6 he Bible knows two models of sacred space. On one model, what may be called “intrinsic sacred space,” God chooses one point on earth to reveal God’s presence. That point becomes axis mundi, the center of the world, around which the rest of the world is structured in descending levels of sanctity. The source for this model is in Genesis 22, the narrative of the binding of Isaac. Abraham is dispatched to “the land of Moriah,” to offer Isaac as a sacrifice “on one of the heights which I [God] will point out to you.” Subsequently, in II Chronicles 3:2, Moriah becomes the spot on which Solomon builds the Temple. The heart of the Temple was the Holy of Holies. Within the Holy of Holies stood the ark containing the twin tablets of the covenant. Over the ark was a kaporet or cover, on top of which were two facing graven cherubim whose upswept wings met shielding the ark. It was from the pinpoint between the wings of the cherubim that God says “I will meet with you and I will command you concerning the Israelite people.” (Exodus 25:17-22) In the later tradition, other places where God’s presence is revealed, for example Jacob’s ladder, are conflated with Moriah. There can be only one center of the world. The second model may be called “extrinsic sacred space.” Here, any spot on earth can become the center of the world. In the Bible, this model is illustrated by the Israelite encampment during the desert wanderings. The camp could be located at any place in the wilderness, but wherever it stood, the sanctuary was at its center. At the center of the sanctuary stood the ark and its cherubim, and God still addressed the community from between the wings of the cherubim. God chosethe place to camp — as signaled by the cloud that moved or rested — but that place could be anyplace. In time, that “anyplace” became the synagogue. The Temple, intrinsic sacred space, could only be in Jerusalem. But the synagogue could be wherever a minyan of Jews with their Torah scroll chose to settle. God sanctifies intrinsic sacred space; the community sanctifies extrinsic sacred space. Jeremiah 29 contains the text of a letter sent by Jeremiah to the community of exiles in Babylonia. It is an extraordinary document. In it, God counsels the exiles to “build houses and live in them, plant fields and eat their fruit, take wives and beget sons and daughters; . . . multiply there. And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.” Then, “When you call Me and come and pray to Me, I will give heed to you. You will search for Me and find Me. I will be at hand for you and I will restore your fortunes. And I will gather you from all the nations, and I will bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.” This letter, seemingly written as a deliberate, point-by-point rejection of the bleak portrait of exile in Deuteronomy 28, affirms the religious legitimacy of extrinsic sacred space. Its theological basis is a statement about God. God’s power is not bounded by geography; it June_shma_x.qxd:Layout 1 5/30/07 2:14 PM Page 7 extends throughout the world. God can be worshiped from any place on earth. God can even reach beyond the boundaries of the Holy Land and redeem the community from exile. One of the traditional names for God is HaMakom, literally “The Place.” But according to the rabbinic understanding of that name, God is “the place” of the world, not the other way around. God does not inhabit space. The exiled community can flourish but it cannot have a Temple; that is reserved for Jerusalem. But it can still worship God without a Temple, without sacrifices, through the words of prayer. “Instead of bulls, we will pay [with] the offerings of our lips.” (Hosea 6:3) This pattern goes a long way toward explaining the ambiguities of our relationship to Israel, both land and state. For centuries, we prayed and dreamed of a return to Zion and the rebuilding of the Temple; we worship facing Jerusalem; we conclude Yom Kippur and our Passover sedarim with the words, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Yet we remain here. Ironically, it is precisely our religious structures that make it possible for us to live an authentic Jewish religious life anywhere on earth. We carry our religion on our backs. Halakhah enables us to worship God at every moment of our lives, wherever we may be. God’s power is not bounded by geography; it extends throughout the world. Emet Ve-Emunah, the Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism, puts it this way: “Our religion has been land-centered but never land-bound.” (p. 38) Community Size and Identity Matthew Boxer A merican Jews live in two worlds. One is secular, in which we go to work and school, pay taxes, run errands, attend to other mundane tasks. The other world consists of religious rituals, institutions, special foods, and languages, and is shared primarily with fellow Jews. Here, some Jews perform mitzvot, and daven, and celebrate chagim. In many ways, our level of participation in the Jewish world depends largely on the communities and social contexts in which we live. Whether we go to work or school or attend services on the holidays, eat in non-kosher restaurants, learn about Jewish history and culture, or socialize with other Jews depends on the availability of Jewish social, cultural, and religious resources, as well as a sizeable Jewish population to support related institutions. Large Jewish communities provide options that are hard to find in small Jewish communities, and they are generally crucial for the development of a strong Jewish identity. One’s involvement in Jewish activities and the Jewish community strongly correlates to the strength of one’s Jewish identity: the more one participates, the stronger the identity and, therefore, more opportunities to engage in Jewish life means that individuals are more likely to develop stronger Jewish identities. In large Jewish communities, where there are dozens of synagogues representing differ- ent denominations and orientations, we make choices about how to observe Judaism, and we can develop large Jewish social networks with little effort. Kosher food is readily available and varied, as are opportunities to participate in a variety of Jewish organizational and educational experiences with well-trained, professional instructors. The plethora of options in all aspects of Jewish life make it possible for one to be as involved — or not — in the Jewish community as one desires, and to build as much Jewish cultural capital as one wants. By contrast, small Jewish communities offer far fewer options: perhaps only one synagogue where an individual’s decision not to attend may preclude the possibility of communal prayer. In small communities, Jews must make a conscious effort to interact with fellow Jews, and Jewish education may be limited by the lack of resources needed to hire trained professionals and volunteers’ limited knowledge. Further, although small Jewish communities are relatively understudied, research has consistently indicated that Jews who grow up in small Jewish communities tend to become less religiously observant than their parents. Because of the dearth of Jews in such communities, children may associate exclusively with non-Jews, and the fewer Jews in the community, the greater parents’ acceptance that their children will develop relationships of increas- Matthew Boxer is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working on a dissertation examining the effects of Jewish community size on Jewish identity. He was raised in a very small Jewish community in Niagara Falls, NY. June 2007 Sivan 5767 To subscribe: 877-568-SHMA www.shma.com 7