Blog

By: Brandon Chiat, Digital Media Manager 

On a brisk morning in January 2018, Beth El's Board of Directors, senior staff, and clergy began shaping the congregation's vision for the future. Their challenge was to articulate the synagogue's mission and values.

“The mission statement and core values align the congregation, and all its various community constituents, along a unified vision of who we are as a community and what we want to accomplish together,” said Joshua Bender, Executive Director.

When asked to describe Beth El's identity, some stakeholders suggested Beth El's “warmth of community.” Still, others believed Beth El's “rockstar clergy” was the congregation's most identifiable characteristic.

While congeniality and remarkable spiritual guidance are hallmarks of Beth El, the congregational leadership challenged themselves to dive deeper. First, by defining a Conservative synagogue's role in the life of modern Jews, then exploring the relationship between congregation and congregant.

“In a changing world, where the relationship Jews have with their synagogue is evolving, it is of the utmost importance for our spiritual community to continually reflect on who we are and who we want to be,” Mr. Bender said. 

After many long months of informal coffee conversations, board meetings, focus groups, and retreats, a story began to form; an emotional narrative that transformed what is into what could be.

“A meaningful and relevant Judaism that is worthy of making time for, investing in, and anchoring our lives would be a blessing to us, to God, and the greater Jewish people,” Rabbi Dana Saroken said. “Our aspiration and purpose are to share Judaism in such a way that people realize the impact that Torah, and Jewish tradition, wisdom, values, and community can make in each of our lives. Ideally, every mitzvah performed, every bit of wisdom acquired, and each tradition incorporated into our lives will inspire all of us to continuously grow in our Jewish knowledge and living.” 

With that mission in mind, here are Beth El's core values: 

Torah: Exploring the Accumulated Wisdom of Our Tradition

From its very inception, Beth El Congregation explored the interplay between tradition and innovation, having broken away from an Orthodox congregation to embrace the progressive attitudes of Conservative Judaism. 

“When I first came to Beth El 22-years ago, the congregation's motto was: A living faith works and a working faith lives,” Rabbi Steve Schwartz said. “Judaism is a faith that has always evolved to deal with new societal issues as well as how people identify as human beings and as Jews while remaining grounded in tradition.”

No matter where the mission and vision take the congregation in the future, Torah will always drive the intellectual and spiritual lives of Beth El.

The core value of Torah is why Beth El members study ancient texts in a very traditional sense - whether at the Monday night Agus Academy or Thursday afternoon Talmud study - and why Rabbi Saroken begins every program at the Soul Center - whether an interactive arts class or yoga or meditation sessions - by sharing relevant Jewish wisdom.

“We need enough tradition to feel grounded in our lives, and yet we also need enough change to feel excited and moved as if we've never been to that spiritual place before,” Rabbi Saroken said. “Our challenge is to speak to the spiritual and religious needs of our day, which is a different day that has different needs than ever before.”

In the march towards innovation, there are specific Jewish traditions which will remain indispensable at Beth El. Services will always be conducted primarily in Hebrew. The clergy and congregation will protect the sanctity of Shabbat and uphold the laws of Kashrut. Minyan will occur daily, and congregants will continue to wrap tefillin.

“Our authenticity comes from how we anchor ourselves in Judaism's ancient wisdom,” Rabbi Schwartz said. “By prioritizing Torah and tradition as a core value - and really all three core values reflect this - we are allowing people to explore traditional Jewish life here at Beth El and discover that it is still important, meaningful, and relevant to them.”

Chesed: Extending Kindness, Hospitality, and Generosity to Others

At a time when acts of violence and words of exclusion, fear, hatred, and discrimination threaten to divide communities, Beth El reaffirmed Chesed as a core value.

“Kindness is a powerful tool,” Cantor Melanie Blatt said. “By prioritizing Chesed, Beth El demonstrates that outward acts of loving-kindness shape our identity as Jews.” 

Beth El Congregation demonstrated its commitment to Chesed on May 16th, 2018 when it took the momentous step of updating the synagogue's bylaws to include non-Jewish spouses as official members.

“During these times when there are more and more interfaith couples in the Jewish community, we need to ensure that Beth El is as open and welcoming as it can be to those families, their children, and their needs,” Rabbi Schwartz said. “Inviting interfaith families into our congregation as members is an integral part of our mission to be a progressive and welcoming synagogue.” 

Beth El has always welcomed families with one non-Jewish spouse or partner. The board's decision to update Beth El's bylaws to officially include interfaith households into the congregation as full members is an enlightened direction for the synagogue.

Along those lines, the senior staff and lay leadership committed themselves to an inclusive approach, prioritizing programs and strategies that welcome LGBTQ+ families and disabled members. Most notably, Beth El was the first Conservative synagogue in Baltimore to conduct an LGBTQ+ couple's commitment ceremony within the walls of its sanctuary.

“Chesed is fundamentally about respect and caring,” Rabbi Schwartz said. “We express Chesed externally by remembering our values apply to people of all backgrounds, and internally by taking care of our fellow members as we would our own families.”

Beth El's clergy and congregants regularly visit those members who are convalescing or who face life-threatening illnesses. But with over 1,700 families in the Beth El community, that is no small task.

“Cantor Blatt has helped focus the congregation's Chesed efforts by reviewing which members are sick and may be in need of a visit,” Rabbi Schwartz said. “Establishing a formal process and structure for outreach in the congregation helps us pursue Chesed as something we value.” 

Chesed is innate in all of Beth El's clergy, as recently exemplified by Cantor Thom King and his wife, Shazy. On the second day of Shavuot, Shazy and Cantor King received a phone call from a distraught congregant whose family member had just been taken to hospice. The Kings immediately drove to meet the family and eased the difficult transition with prayer and song.

“Every member of the Beth El clergy is deeply devoted to the principle of Pikuach Nefesh: That giving help to a person in distress overrides any other commandment,” Cantor Thom King said. "At Beth El, we see this principle carried out every day in its broadest sense, that by bringing comfort and support to those in need, we are fulfilling the highest purpose we can attain."

Kedusha: Bringing God and Holiness Into Life's Every Day and Sacred Moments 

Kedusha (holiness) in Judaism is a theological concept that serves as a guide to daily life. In directing the Jewish people in how to attain holiness, the Torah portrays Kedusha as both a quality inherent in Hashem and as a goal for people to strive for in their actions and thoughts.

“People want to feel connected to something greater than themselves,” Rabbi Schwartz said. “People sense the mystery of the universe and want to explore ways to connect with that mystery.”

Prioritizing Kedusha as a core value suggests that Beth El members are committed to leading morally and ethically just lives, through ritual services and Jewish practice, the study of Jewish wisdom and texts, and most notably, by commemorating life cycle events in accordance with Jewish tradition.

“Judaism has everything that people are so eagerly searching for today: a way to hit the pause button on our busy lives; a way to connect with real people, in real time, around true passions; and a way to mark meaningful moments on our journey through life,” Rabbi Saroken said.

Traditionally, halacha (Jewish law), through its requirements and restrictions, established a standard of decent behavior by which Jews might attain Kedusha. 

“Some Jews might think we've entered a post-halachic age,” Rabbi Schwartz said. “At Beth El, we believe that pursuing traditional Judaism through Jewish practice and rituals fills our lives with Kedusha.”

A member recently attended Yizkor services to say Kaddish for his mother. In an email to Rabbi Schwartz, the member expressed the Kedusha he experienced when the entire congregation stood to recite Kaddish alongside him.

“He knew he belonged to a community that in one way or another empathized with him because we all experience the same lifecycle events,” Rabbi Schwartz said. “He feels Kedusha as an individual in weekday services, but that Kedusha was elevated through his connection to our community, which is to say our shared identity, history, and tradition.”

“In today's world, we are all eagerly trying to create rituals of meaning and memorable experiences for ourselves and our families to share. Kedusha is a fancy way of saying we're aspiring to create sacred or holy ways of marking the passage of time,” Rabbi Saroken said. “Kedusha is about intentionally creating ways to celebrate holidays and holy days, of anniversaries and milestone moments on our journeys. It's about inviting each other and God into our lives to make the joyful moments more joyful and the harder moments in life more endurable.”

Mission and Values: A Continuous Process

“As justifiably proud as we are of our new mission statement and core values, we also understand that within them lies a significant challenge,” Cantor King said. “In defining our most deeply-held beliefs and goals, we are daring ourselves to live up to our vision of our future, as individuals and as a faith community. We must, with honesty and humility, recognize that only by striving every day to embody the virtues contained in these words can we hope to make them a reality.”

Actualizing these values and executing the mission statement will require an iterative approach. 

“Jewish tradition has a built-in mechanism for personal reflection. On Yom Kippur we ask ourselves: are we everything we want to be?” Mr. Bender posed. “In the same light, our mission and values ensure Beth El is everything we want it to be. But the work isn't over; it's a continuous, never-ending process of interpreting and evolving of our identity, just like we do with our understanding of Torah.”

Beth El's vision for a congregation of modern Jews, anchored by indispensable tradition, guided by ancient wisdom, and unified around the core values of Torah, Chesed, and Kedusha, will prepare the synagogue to meet the unforeseen challenges of an evolving future. 

“People today embrace spirituality as creative, engaging, and soulful, whereas religion has come to look staid, predictable, and lackluster,” Rabbi Saroken said. “The key is to blend the two to speak to all generations: to bring religion into spirituality and spiritually into religion. Beth El's revised mission and core values focus the entire congregation's efforts on making Torah and Jewish wisdom meaningful and relevant, helping our members grow in their Jewish knowledge and identity, and doing so in a way that leaves everyone feeling connected, inspired, and excited. Time is precious, and we believe that Judaism is too!”