by George Gazarek
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in his book “We Jews, Who Are We and What Should We Do,” struggles with this question. While we have a religion called Judaism, all Jews are not religious, therefore, we are not a religion. While some Jews can trace their DNA back to Aaron, others belong to many different races. So, Jews are not a race. Thank God that we now have a country the Jewish people can call home. However, many Jews live outside of Israel, so we are not a nation either.
The Torah calls us Jews the “House of Israel” meaning that the Jews are essentially a family. You can be born into the family or you can be adopted into the family, as I was, through the process of conversion. Once I rose up out of the mikvah, I became a son of Abraham, a son of Israel, a full fledged member of the family.
We here at Sha’are Shalom are also a family. We come together to celebrate times of joy and we come together to provide comfort in times of mourning. We have family squabbles and we have family reconciliation and forgiveness. We share the pride when one of us achieves a success and we lend our support when one of us is in need.
Maintaining peace in the home is a Jewish value referred to in Hebrew as Shalom Bayit. It emphasizes the importance of working together as a family to make the home a nurturing, harmonious environment despite whatever chaos, stress, or conflict may challenge peace. Over this past year, my first as President of CSS, I have come to think of our congregation more as a family. I have also come to the belief that maintaining Shalom Bayit, is more important than being right or having my way.
I have installed a cork board on the wall of the hallway leading to the classrooms. It has the heading, The Sha’are Shalom Family. I encourage each of you to pin a picture of you or your family on this board. Each time that we pass this board, let it remind us that we are a family. And let us all work together to strive for Shalom Bayit.