<html><head><title>[Aspaqlaria] My Dream Synagogue</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/wp-content/themes/twentyeleven/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /></head><body>Aspaqlaria has posted a new item, '<a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/my-dream-synagogue">My Dream Synagogue</a>'<br />
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<p>Here are things my dream Growth Oriented Shul would provide that normal <em>shuls</em> today do not:</p>
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<li><em>Qiddush</em> after <em>leining</em>, before <em>mussaf</em>, combined with a <em>devar Torah </em>or text learning. Our attention spans have shrunk. Rather than fight it, and ending up with people who come late, talk, walk out for Kiddush Club, we build the service around this limitation. It requires hitting the history books and finding out how the <em>yeshivos</em> in Lithuania did it when they broke for morning <em>seder</em> between <em>leining</em> and <em>mussaf </em>– there is ample <em>halachic</em> precedent.</li>
<li>Short <em>vort</em> before <em>Barekhu</em> on the meaning of the words of the upcoming <em>davening</em>. Have a new <em>kavanah</em> for some part of the <em>siddur</em> each week!</li>
<li><em>Chessed</em> programming — something that involves some subset of the membership hands-on (not fundraising) in an at least weekly basis. <em>Shuls</em> provide both <em>Torah</em> and <em>Avodah</em>, why not be a full Judaism Center and provide opportunities for <em>Gemilus Chassadim</em> too? At least if the <em>shul</em> sponsors something, there is a different atmosphere about what a <em>shul</em> and <em>Yahadus</em> are.</li>
<li><em>Mussar Ve’adim</em> — one for each gender, although given the <a href="http://ayproject.com/site/index.php" target="_blank">Ahavas Yisrael Project</a>‘s presence in Passaic, the men’s <em>va’ad</em> would be more critical. The idea isn’t just to have a <em>chaburah</em> in a <em>mussar sefer</em>, but to have a group that actually works together on their <em>middos</em>. (AishDas set up a few groups that meet weekly going through the <em>ve’adim</em> and doing the exercises in Alei Shur vol II.)</li>
<li>Along similar lines as the <em>ve’adim</em> — a <em>Teshuvah</em> Workshop with a wider audience every Elul. Speakers giving actual techniques for change. Rather than being all motivated and well intended, if we’re having a good year, on <em>Aseres Yemei Teshuvah</em>, but not having a strategy to actually get anywhere. (And then we wonder why our list of things to fix is the same year after year…)</li>
<li>The membership agreement would include an ethics and dina demalkhusa clauses. In the “<em>Shomerei Shabbos</em>” type shuls of 70 years ago, those who were fighting upstream to retain their Shabbos observance created a supporting atmosphere by creating synagogues in in which only <em>shomerei Shabbos</em> could retain full membership in the <em>shul</em>. We need something similar to shore up what’s weak in today’s observance.
<p>This is largely unenforceable, as we’re not going to have accountants check people’s books. But it combines with the <em>chessed</em> programming and the <em>ve’adim</em>. I realize both of those programs would in the real world be limited in population; but to the majority of the membership, they make a statement. There is secondary involvement — helping out once, donating money, just reading about it in the shul email — that make an impact on everyone, they set a culture. As would knowing this is in the by-laws / membership agreement.</li>
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