Tell Magazine June 2018 5778

{TO HEAL THE BROKEN PLACES}
Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio
The year was 1946 and the war had finally ended. Rabbi Schenk rose and spoke
passionately about the role of the synagogue, he said: “Judaism must not stand aside
when the great problems of humanity which are reborn in every new epoch, struggle in
the minds of men to gain expression, battle in the societies of mankind to find their way.
We must not as Jews, deny
ourselves to the problems of
the time, nor hide ourselves, as
Jews in the face of them; they
must not be something that
goes on outside our Judaism
in another sphere. We are Jews
also for the sake of humanity…
we must fight the Jewish fight
for the new world of men, of
God’s children, of universal
morality, justice and peace.”
For Rabbi Schenk it was not
possible to divorce the spiritual
from the religious, for one led
to the other. And so too for the
founders of Temple Emanuel,
who all saw the work for tikkun
olam, healing the world, as
fundamental to their lives, their
Judaism and their synagogue.
Judaism has always been a
religion of action; the great
prophets of our tradition exhort
us to act. They argue that the
spiritual means nothing unless
it inspires us to correct the
injustices of the world and to
heal the broken places. Rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel said:
“A religious man is a person
who holds God and man in
one thought at one time, at all
times. Who suffers harm done
to others, whose greatest passion
is compassion, whose greatest
strength is love and defiance of
despair.” Judaism is a religion
of the day to day, the here and
now. Our texts cry to us to
take action, to be involved.
Heschel said: “The teaching
of Judaism is the theology
of the common deed. God
is concerned with the
everydayness, the trivialities
of life… the prophets’
field of concern is not the
mysteries of heaven, the
glories of eternity but the
blights of society, the affairs
of the marketplace…
the prophet addresses
himself to those who
trample upon the needy,
increase the price of
grain, use dishonest scales
and sell the refuse of corn”
And our synagogue has a proud
history of involvement in social
action, in bold acts of tikkun
olam, healing the world. In the
founding years, the synagogue,
especially through its Board
and its Women’s Guild, worked
tirelessly in the war efforts. They
welcomed refugees coming
from Europe, cared for military
personnel far from home,
helped with soup kitchens,
trained as home nurses to offer
care to the wounded and sick.
The Women’s Guild members
made camouflage netting for
the war efforts, sitting in their
homes in the evenings and
Rabbi Max Schenk
working during the day
in Martin Place creating the
nets. The synagogue continued
to reach out and help during
the war years, and afterwards
settling new arrivals, healing
and welcoming them into
community. At the same time,
almost every member of the
congregation was working
to help others in individual
projects outside the synagogue,
something which has spanned
the generations of synagogue
members, so many contributing
to shaping a better world
either under the banner of the
synagogue or individually.
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