Primary and Secondary Jewish Acts
September 8, 2008
Torah
(2 comments)
By Larry Kaufman
At a leadership development workshop, the temple board (not my congregation) was discussing Rabbi Lawrence Kushner's article The Tent Peg Business. Rabbi Kushner posits that synagogues exist to facilitate the performance of what he calls primary Jewish acts, Torah study, worship, and good deeds -- while pointing out that the activists in the synagogue tend to get caught up with the secondary acts of running the photocopy machine, or running a bake sale, or drawing up a budget.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with performing the secondary acts -- Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) reminds us Im eyn kemach eyn Torah, im eyn Torah, eyn kemach -- if there is no material substance, there can be no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no substance.
As we discussed this, the treasurer of the congregation remarked that the pressures of performing the secondary acts diminished his ability to concentrate on the primary acts, and many if not most of his fellow-participants in the discussion (including Yours Truly) found no difficulty in understanding and empathizing with what Cory was saying.
On the assumption that most of my readers have some degree of concern with both primary and secondary Jewish acts, I invite your comments on the best ways to keep the two in balance.
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As one of the attendees of the workshop that Larry is writing about here, I'd like to make, what is to me, an important clarification: the secondary work that Cory (and many others of us who were present) was referencing was not work that is done on Shabbat. Cory's point was that, because so much of our focus, as board members and volunteers, is on the business of the synagogue--- finances and facilities and maintenance and fundraising--- as a result of that, it is our spirituality that suffers, on any and every day of the week.
In effect, we see the dross and the detritus of synagogue life, and it gets in the way of the sacred light sometimes. You know how it is; instead of sensing the kehilla kedosha (holy community), we hear the bickering and pettiness and grumblings. It is the politics of board life, the factionalism of committees--- those voices can drown out God's music.
It is not that we do the secondary work of our synagogue on Shabbat. It is that, because we do that work every day of the six that we have a difficult time accessing the joy and celebration of the seventh day. So the question that Larry posed to us, in our workshop, was how to recapture that sense of spirituality, so that we can re-focus on the primary business/work of the synagogue. Finding that answer is difficult; we still have to keep the business end going, whether through paying bills, making copies, unplugging drains or listening to 50 voices all claiming to be able to do it better (whatever it is) without actually doing anything at all. You get the idea.
For me, the answer to this issue was to pull back from some of my secondary work responsibilities. I dropped a committee or two, hung back a bit, didn't engage as fully nor did I participate as much. And I threw myself into what matters most to me: Torah, avodah and g'milut chasadim. I still teach religious and Hebrew school. I still serve as vice chair of the Ritual Committee and chair the Development committee. I chant Torah every Saturday and have the honor of being one of our songleaders on most Friday nights. I am so incredibly grateful that I have been able to find my place again, to feel the wholeness of engaging in the primary work. I am lucky.
Many of my friends and peers still struggle though. It is almost as if, because of the struggle in the secondary acts, they see the whole of the Synagogue--- primary and secondary, as slightly tainted. And once bitten, they are doubly shy. Perhaps, for some, they feel that to rock the boat any more, to change and choose differently, the whole ship will capsize.
I apologize for the wall of text. However, this issue touches me deeply. I appreciate all your comments and appreciate the chance to share my own thoughts on this matter.
Stacey Robinson
Congregation Am Echod
Lindenhurst, IL
130 member units, give or take