TBK President Steven Chaba - Rosh Hashana Address
Address by TBK President Steven Chaba
Rosh HaShana 5779
September 10, 2018
Good morning, good yuntif and Shanah Tovah. My name is Steven Chaba, and I'm honored to serve as your temple President. Since taking on this role in July, I've had the opportunity to meet and speak with many of you, and I hope to continue and expand those conversations over the next two years.
There are three “ahs” that we are reminded of at this season. I'm not talking about how Bostonians refer to the three main topics taught in primary school. Rather, I refer to the three pillars of the High Holy Days, to which we refer in our liturgy: Teshuvah – return. T'filah – prayer. And Tzedahkah – often thought of as “Charity”, but also taken to mean “justice”.
One of our distinguished past Presidents, Jerry Zakalik, has described a vision of our need to think equally about “temple business” and also “the business of the temple”.
Conceptually, “temple business” is straightforward. It's how we keep the lights on, the building heated and cooled, the grass cut and the snow plowed. Given that we're in Rochester, occasionally we heat, cool, cut and plow all in the same week.
It's how we engage and retain inspiring clergy such as Rabbi Stein and Rabbi Tulik, access soul-stirring music as provided by Keri Berger all year round and by the choir at this season. It's how our wonderful professional staff, led by Executive Director Michael Yudelson, daily provides the ordinary functions of a synagogue in a most extraordinary fashion.
That all takes your support. Once again this year, we're asking for your support at this High Holy Day season. We know that you know the importance of this effort. It's evidenced by the wonderful response you've provided in years past. We are confident that our congregation will again step forward when the materials arrive at your home in the near future.
But in attending to “temple business”, we are also constantly mindful of “the business of temple”; namely, to build and sustain a warm, welcoming, inclusive environment that can meet the needs of Rochester's Jewish community at every stage of life. We're in the caring business, and I say, not as a boast, but as a matter of record, that while we're very, very good at our business, we're also constantly looking for ways to be better.
At our Annual Meeting, we first spoke publicly of our intent to change how we approach ongoing, sustaining support for “temple business”. And that speaks to the notion of Tzedakah as justice. For the history of TBK, membership has come with a tag, one that was pre-defined as the just way of expected support. Now, with our Give To Your Heart's Content model, the notion of justice is reversed, where each member defines for themselves the justice of relating to our synagogue.
We've had one congregational meeting to detail this approach, there are two more are scheduled in October to allow members to ask questions and discuss the model in depth as they consider tzedakah in this light – their own vision of justice.
We're looking to have this approach fully implemented by the beginning of the New Year – that other, Gregorian New Year. In the mean time, the mailings you get will look a lot like the ones you've gotten all along. Consider this a “preview of coming attractions”.
As we celebrate our 170th anniversary in the upcoming year, we are committed to more closely aligning the “the business of Temple” - building and sustaining the kehila kedohsa that is Temple B'rith Kodesh, with “temple business” through a truer pursuit of tzedakah – justice.
Oh, and those other two “ahs”? Teshuvah? You're here. And T'filah? You're here!
Shanah Tovah.
