MEYERLAND MINYAN: HAPPY THIRTEENTH B/D!

A synagogue celebrating its “bar mitzvah” and “coming of age”? Are these just cleverly cute poetic devices that make catchy headlines in a local Jewish weekly newspaper? Or is there some deeper, truer meaning to those ideas?

There is a word “organism,” which means, in rough laymen’s terms, a “living individual”. The organism each of us knows best is our own personal self – the body, mind, and soul of which each of us consists, as a single instance of the biological species scientifically known – admittedly with some hyperbole – as “intelligent man” (Homo sapiens).

But in Judaism that is only the beginning. There are other, yet more complex “organisms” – other self-contained units, each having a birth, a life, and a unique, ongoing history of its own. Three such other organisms in ascending, outward order beyond the individual Jew are: the Jewish family, the Jewish community, and the entire Jewish nation. So, then, what is, in general, the essential characteristic of an “organism”?

It is simply this: that all components of the unit function as a single, indivisible whole, with internal harmony and in the pursuit of only those goals that will ultimately preserve and benefit the entire organism. At the most basic level of “organism” familiar to us – the human body – this inner harmony is all but taken for granted – with only rare exceptions in pathological circumstances that are ultimately fatal.

A concrete if highly simplistic example will make this clearer. The last time you had a headache, did your legs tell your head, “How could you get us into this mess? We’ve got planes to catch and bills to pay! Well, it’s your problem now; good luck with that. See you later.” Did they? Nothing of the sort. Your legs instinctively and lovingly carried your head (along with the rest of your body) to the medicine chest or pharmacy to find an aspirin, or to your bed, so you could lie down and rest, or to the doctor, if your headache was more serious and needed professional attention. Because your legs instinctively “understood” the need to act harmoniously with and for the benefit of the head and the rest of your body, for the survival and well-being of the entire organism (you).

Thus, the defining feature of an “organism” is that it functions as an indivisible unit, with all its parts (“organs”) in complete harmony, sympathy, and co-operation with one another. Were even one of your organs to suddenly branch off selfishly in its own direction, pursuing only its own interests without regard for the needs of your body as a whole, your life would be called seriously into question.

Moving up the organic ladder, to the family unit, the very same applies. Any family whose members act not in sympathy and co-operation with each other, whose members operate not in concert but in disjointed pursuit of each their own individual interests, to the detriment of the indivisible family unit, will very soon unravel and eventually perforce disband. In our times it now happens so very often that it is too often misapprehended as a social “norm”.

And so, too, for any community “organism” – and the Jewish community all the more so. Judaism, that is, the Torah, places enormous emphasis on fostering interpersonal relations to the highest imaginable degree of refinement. No nation in history has remotely approached the Jewish value system in its insistence on pursuing that communal ideal – and in providing an exquisitely elaborate while also highly practical “code” for realizing that ideal – namely, the mitzvot bein adam lachaveiro, the commandments of the Torah that foster healthy, harmonious human relations. A Jewish community not committed to that ideal is, by definition, not worthy of the name, and not viable.

So, then, what is a minyan and what is a shul? A shul (aka “synagogue”, which is Greek for drawing or leading together) is a place where Jews meet, as a community, to reaffirm their ongoing commitment to being an organic whole. Yes, a synagogue is almost always also a physical structure. But most important, a synagogue is a place for the meeting of minds, as expressed through shared prayer and Torah study. Jewish tradition mandates that the minimum size of a community that can possibly succeed in fully realizing Jewish communal goals is a minyan – simply put, an “organism” of ten Jewish adults.

But the word “minyan” itself only means “a count”. Strictly speaking, then, to say that you have a minyan is only to say that you have the warm, conscious bodies of ten Jewish adult males together in the same room. Nothing more is implied by the word itself. It is almost a synonym for “the absolute and essential minimal configuration”.

We note, then, that Meyerland Minyan’s insistence on calling itself a “minyan” – long, long after establishing itself as an enduring entity in a permanent location, and even now after attaining “adulthood”, underscores its members’ and leadership’s humble commitment to ever greater attainments – especially in its chosen mission of Jewish outreach. We are always at a baseline (“minyan”) today, but constantly aiming ever higher to the infinity of tomorrow. In some sense we are all beginners. And are so commanded in the Shema itself! “Let these words which I am commanding you today be upon your heart.” The Talmud explains the word “today” to mean that we must approach the Torah each and every day of our lives with completely fresh eyes, as if we had never, ever seen it before.

Life is a journey, not a destination. And Jewish life all the more so. The possibilities are literally endless, and today’s achievements, however great today, will ultimately be seen, in retrospect, as only a bare minimum, really – just a “minyan” – sufficing for the particular time and space they occupied. It is this humbling thought, that, far from discouraging us from exerting any effort at all, is what goads us forward as Jews with undying enthusiasm and hope for better persons, better families, better communities, and a better world at every level.

What is a bar mitzvah, in the conventional sense? It is a celebration of successes in the past that justify yet greater hope for the future. “It takes a village to raise a child,” we often hear. But Judaism does not quite agree. No, it takes a nation to raise a child! Even so, it all begins with two parents and a community, with Heavenly guidance and support. A child’s thirteenth birthday proclaims and celebrates that a baseline has been successfully achieved in the form of one more Jew entering the community as a fully fledged member. But that bar mitzvah baseline for a young Jew, like a “minyan,” is only the minimum from which the infinite can – and will – continue to flourish.

The “bar mitzvah” of a shul is likewise a celebration of both past successes and hopes for future successes, that are absolutely assured, for that is God’s promise to us, assuming only that the we persist uncompromisingly in our commitment to pursuing “organic,” unifying goals in the manner that He has prescribed, and that has stood the test of time for us for well over three millennia – a feat unprecedented and unmatched in all of human history.

Meyerland Minyan has achieved all of the above, because its leadership and members are committed to all those unifying ideals we’ve mentioned – inner harmony, mutual understanding and respect, and fulfillment of God’s plan for it through strict adherence to His “corporate by-laws” that are read publicly from a hand-written scroll four times (at least) every week, and find their precise elaboration in the inseparable Oral Law.

That, then, is what it means to say that Meyerland Minyan celebrates its bar mitzvah and its coming of age. It is far more than just a catchy headline. It is our commitment to an ideal that will guarantee our “organic” internal consistency and harmony, and our future survival and well-being. “It is our life, and the length of our days” on this Earth.

The five rabbis-honorees without whose support Meyerland Minyan would never have been.