Current Bulletin Message
by Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro

For Your Consideration
Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro

I heard a story about Longmeadow High School. It may not have happened, but it’s the kind of thing that could very well happen.

Around the time of the High Holidays (LHS closes on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), a teacher handed out an assignment. A student said it would be hard for the Jewish students to do the assignment because of the holidays. The teacher replied, “Most of the Jewish kids are secular; they won’t be at services anyway.”

Whether or not an LHS teacher actually said those words, I suspect a good many teachers and other Longmeadow residents who are not Jewish must wonder about Jews and how we live our Judaism. As some of you know, one of the football leagues for younger students pretty comfortably scheduled games this past Rosh Hashanah on a Saturday. Last year, I think it was an LHS team that had an unofficial practice on Rosh Hashanah.

And the problem is twofold: On the one hand, we Jews expect not to be put in a situation where our kids are expected to break away from family (and synagogue) on our holy day. On the other hand, there always are Jews who do play the game or do the homework on the holy day. Non-Jews looking at our community can fairly be confused by the mixed messages our community sometimes sends.

You’ll see this same phenomenon when Passover arrives and some Jew want to attend services on Tuesday morning, March 30. Many Jews will at minimum ask that there be no major tests on March 30 because their children will have been at the First Seder the previous evening.

One problem – There will be other Jews in our community who see no conflict. Some children will dare to ask teachers for consideration because of the Seder; other Jewish children in the same classroom will say they have no problem either because they have no Seder or their families move it to the weekend or their families don’t attend synagogue on Passover.

What’s a non-Jewish person supposed to think? Actually, I’m proud of our Jewish diversity. Jews come in all shapes and sizes and with all varieties of belief. It’s just that non-Jews have a hard time understanding a particular brand of Jew who claims the title but manifests virtually no involvement in Jewish living.

If you belong to Sinai Temple, the good news is that you are already not one of those Jews. Your belonging and your commitment do us proud. With so much history and so much wisdom in our tradition, you already know that we Jews are remarkably blessed.

We do ourselves a favor (and the larger community as well) when we take ourselves seriously and live full Jewish lives that are worthy of the title – Jew.

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