The writer reflects on the meaning of the Sept. 9 Rosh Hashanah holiday for himself and his Lake Norman Jewish Congregation. This weekend brings Yom Kippur, the second of the Jewish High Holidays. Find a schedule of events in our Sept. 7 article.

Rabbi Michael Shields

By RABBI MICHAEL SHIELDS

Rosh Hashanah is about renewal and progress, both personally and communally. In Hebrew, tichadesh means to renew oneself and kadima means forward or onward. As a rabbi, I feel renewed each day because of the interactions with my congregants and I hope they feel renewed by being part of the congregation. I pray that each of us can move forward in positive ways in the year to come.

As a congregation we are also constantly renewing ourselves and making important strides forward. We are developing all of the necessary components of a vibrant Jewish community. The Lake Norman Jewish Congregation has truly become as Ray Oldenberg called it in his book “The Great Good Place,” a “Third Place” for so many people. Mr. Oldenberg explains that people need a “third place,” an informal spot away from work and home where they can meet their needs for human connection; a place where they can feel comfortable and appreciated, a place, like the Cheers bar of the old television show, “where everybody knows your name.” Our congregation further enriches and sanctifies our “Third Place” as we seek to ask the “big” questions of life and help each other live holy lives.

Our integrity, our excellent religious school and adult education programs, and the way we welcome and honor families in all of their forms draws people to our kehillah (community). During this summer alone, we have added 18 families and 25 students to the religious school. We now have 125 families and 105 religious school students. Four Davidson College students teach in the school. Our kindergarten class alone has 18 students. We are known in the Lake Norman and Charlotte region and in the Reform Movement as an innovative and educationally sound organization.

We are engaged with the larger Jewish community and I am proud of that involvement. Numerous members of the congregation volunteered at the 2nd annual “Shalom Lake Norman” Jewish festival, supporting our leadership serving on the Jewish council of Lake Norman. Our members showed up hours before the festival began and stayed long after the festival had ended. All of us wanted to see, and were willing to support with our sweat equity, the success of the festival. The strength of our “Third Place,” our congregation, lifts the entire community and makes such grand and meaningful events as the festival possible. This is another reason why people value and appreciate our congregation.

One of my rabbis once wrote: “The synagogue is a kehilah kedoshah – a sacred community. Like a sukkah, it is constructed of many different branches woven together: the young, the old, the rich and the poor, the married and the unmarried, single parents, grandparents, gays and heterosexuals, non-Jewish spouses. The broader the Sukkah’s reach, the more tightly its branches are woven, the stronger it stands. So, too, the synagogue: the greater variety of people welcomed within it, the closer they feel to one another, the stronger the temple stands.” This quotation captures our vision of community and the values of the movement to which we belong.

Shanah Tovah Lake Norman.

Michael Shields is Rabbi of the Lake Norman Jewish Congregation. This article is reprinted with permission from his blog, “The Lake Norman Rabbi,” at mjshields.com.