JOIN US AND ADD YOUR INGREDIENTS TO OUR CHICKEN SOUP
By Hal Shainwald, President

When I think of Sha’aray Shalom, I think about chicken soup. My thoughts return to my childhood and I remember watching how lovingly my mother would stand in the kitchen and pull out the vegetables, the salt, the pepper and the chicken.  She would fill the old pot – my grandmother’s old pot  - and fill it with water.  Just the right amount of water and it was always just the right amount.  Cut the chicken into pieces, for it was always a whole chicken.  Cut up chicken did not work and then she would carefully place the chicken in the water, for dropping the chicken in the water did not work. She continued adding ingredients into the pot, carefully and with precision.

And a few hours latter we had chicken soup.

At Shabbat, we would all sit down and enjoy our hot chicken soup. It varied from week to week, with noodles, rice or sometimes matza ball soup but as I now remember back, it was not the taste, the consistency or the added rice or noodles that made the chicken soup so remarkable.  It was the way I felt; the way my brothers felt; the way my father felt as he slurped his soup, for he always slurped his soup.

It was the warm feeling, the feeling of well being created by care and love my mother had put into making this simple dish that was important

For me, our synagogue is like chicken soup.  It is the warm feeling, the feeling of well being created by care and love a community provides.  It is the Rabbi and the Cantor, the music and the learning,  It is about an active community filled with all ages.  It is the love and commitment one has made to the congregation, to each individual, no matter how different their recipe is to make our religious life a better life.

Our religious lives, training, and background all differ.  For some the memories are new and recent, for others the memories come from their youth. We enter this sanctuary and we remember. Some of us remember the pride we felt at our own Bar or Bat Mitzvah.  Some of us remember the sweetness of our wedding. Some of us remember the faces of our children at their baby naming. Some of us remember the times we have been blessed with the honor of opening the ark or holding the Torah, reciting the Torah blessings or carrying the Torah through the congregation.  And we also remember the tears we cried as we said Kaddish for those who are gone.

We are here because we want our traditions to continue; we need to know that Reform Judaism will be around for future generations.   Some of us may not even believe in God, some may not believe in prayer but we all remember that in the face of all history, this temple, this congregation, is the place where we practice what it is to be part of a Jewish communal family.  This temple is where we, as a community, mark the most joyful and the most painful moments in our lives.

I invite each of you to strengthen this community together in every way we know how - for our friends, for our families and for ourselves - because everyone needs a place to celebrate; everyone needs a place to grow; everyone needs a place to mourn.  This is our place for every aspect of our lives.

As the president.  I love being a chicken soup maker.  And I can’t wait to find out how you make chicken soup. Join me and join our community. Soon, we will be slurping chicken soup together.