Beyond the Bema

I remember the first time I heard about my Rabbi’s installation, one of the board members who was reading the announcements on a Saturday morning Shabbat service was the one who said it. I was confused and a few jokes were let out among the congregation. Why would they call it that? He’s being promoted to Sr Rabbi, why wouldn’t they just say that? As it turns out, it’s a Jewish thing, and thus another mental note in my brain at how things differ among religions.

I was asked to join the band. They don’t call it a praise band or worship band in Judaism, it’s just “the band”. I think in the program we were even listed as “The Musicians“. I can’t tell you how stoked I was. I hadn’t played with people in over ten years. But me and my trusty bass guitar mustered all the confidence we could and went to practice. I was rusty. My fingers don’t move as smoothly, especially towards the end of the set list. But I still had it. And my fellow musicians could see that. The whole experience of the band was great. When you’re in a room with people who have the same intentions as you, you’re doing good. I was in a room full of people getting music just right for the congregation to praise G!d. I couldn’t have been happier. The performance was great. We ended on two very strong songs and it was HOPPIN’ in that sanctuary. Our cantor is amazing. She wrote ALL of those songs and had brilliant ideas that made the songs even better for performance. And instead of just telling us what to do, we collaborated, like Jews do, and it got the job done so efficiently. No one’s input was diminished and everyone seemed to feel comfortable with all decisions.

My Rabbi, Rabbi Nick, had his mentor out to perform the installation. It was easy to see how he looks up to her so much, very often quoting her in services and even in one-on-one sessions I’ve had with him. Her two drashes were fantastic. Something that hit home with me was how when we have a disagreement with someone, we perhaps need to step back and look into what we are missing in us that they have. For example, I am currently frustrated with someone, but for the past two days, this person has shown extreme patience with me. I need to show more patience to them. Rabbi Amy also talked about her home burning into ashes as she lives in California and lost her home to the fires last year. And how we tend to hold on to material things. But what we really need to do is hang on to our faith. We need to be grounded in our faith.

I think these two correlate with each other. We need to be grounded in our faith enough that we may see when we need to evaluate our relationships so things don’t go bad. Think of it as fine tuning your relationships. This helps build community with each other and as Jewish people, it’s our duty to keep community strong and play your part. It is like tuning tuning a guitar. Sure, you start off with a great tune, but as the set goes on, it loses its tune. You need to stay aware, or grounded, in listening to your instrument to keep your tune where it needs to be. Are you getting burned out, lackluster, lazy in your faith so that you can’t see where you need to improve? It is my prayer that we all can find meaning in this message and be grounded.