Message from our President

Many scholars and analysts now fear that we may be undergoing an “epistemological crisis” where facts, knowledge, truth and reality are defined differently, depending on which political tribe you happen to belong to. All this is preventing both citizens and lawmakers from finding the common ground and shared values necessary to address the pressing needs and problems that currently face the country.

Amidst all this splintering and polarization, however, I have found a personal and spiritual source of unity, hope and consolation. Over the years, our synagogue has welcomed a large number of Jewish visitors who hail from foreign countries. Some have been from Israel, others from Eastern Europe, and quite a few from Latin America. I was always struck by the ease with which our foreign visitors were able to participate in our Shabbat and holiday services. They sang the same songs in the same Hebrew with the same melodies as did our congregation. Many did not speak English very well, which made conversation at onegs a bit difficult. But while our prayers were being recited and our songs were being chanted, these differences in language did not matter. For a little while at least, we enjoyed a shared vocabulary and songbook of Jewish ritual. This common spiritual language facilitated a bonding that felt even stronger in virtue of these differences in national identity and language.

In addition to uniting us with our fellow Jews in other lands, our rituals and observances bind us with past generations. Prayers such as the Shema and Kaddish have been recited by Jews over the course of many centuries in exactly the same words that we use now. The chants and rituals of Jewish observance thus bind our people not just across space, but through time as well. Though Jews certainly disagree with one another on a wide range of issues, including, or especially politics, nevertheless we have a shared spiritual language that cuts across these differences and unites us as a single people. Miraculously too, this spiritual commonality emerged spontaneously throughout the world, without a pope or council to dictate to everyone what our prayers, songs and rituals are supposed to be.

Considering the epic dimensions of our current political and epistemological differences, something as simple as common prayers and songs may appear very small. But it is precisely the small things that give grounding and purpose to our lives. Think, for example, of the simple joys we experience around the Thanksgiving dinner table and at Passover seders.

The shared company of family and friends reconnects us with our loved ones, as well as affirming something deeply important about ourselves. The same is true when we share a Shabbat service and oneg together.

Without the small things such as these, life becomes one-dimensional. We lose our sense of integration with others and forfeit the grounding that makes our lives worthwhile. Let’s bear these points in mind as we navigate our way into 2025. In spite of all the uncertainty we face as a nation and as Jews, we can find joy and solace by engaging together in the prayers, songs and rituals that Jews all over the world and throughout time have shared with one another, even in the most challenging of times.

Mark Packer