“Emunah”
It seems that discussing a trait like “Faith” with a faith community should be a straight forward task. But in fact, I have had some difficulty. This is partly because the topic of faith seems to me to be more in the Rabbi’s corner and not in the President’s domain and partly because as Reform Jews we often skirt the whole issue of Faith and G-d.
For the sake of sticking with my plan of discussing these Mussar traits as they apply to our congregational life and not our spiritual life, I will limit my discussion to what I need to have faith in as President and what you need to have in faith in from your Board leaders.
I have faith in the people who carry out each of our activities. I have faith that even more of you will step forward to become involved in the leadership of TE. I have faith that the projects we have started will come to fruition. I have faith that as I err, stumble and fall that I will be forgiven and shown how I can improve. As a congregation you have had to have faith that we are being fiscally responsible and that we are making good decisions. We have all had to have faith that we would collect the funds to make the new building the reality which it is. I need to have faith that members will still come forward to furnish it and figure out what we will do with the House.
You will be receiving the budget for the coming year in the mail very soon. It is prudent, well-thought out and only 3% above last year’s budget. A pretty amazing feat given that our school has grown almost 50% over the last 3 years. To accomplish our goals we all need faith that each member will contribute a true “Fair Share” of what it takes to support this community.
Alan Morinis describes that experience is the gateway to faith; it cannot be understood intellectually but rather needs to be appreciated from experience. To have real faith in our community and its vibrant existence you must come experience it. Sunday, June 7th is the Annual meeting; a time to vote on the budget and the slate of Officers and Board members. Please take the time to come to this important meeting and express your opinion. Too often this is a sparsely attended meeting. Now is the time to come forward and have faith in TE.