189 - After Fifty Years

Fifty years ago, Rabbi David Polish, z”L, and a small band of like thinkers, formed a new congregation. Inspired by the philosophy of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a pioneer of Reform Judaism, their synagogue also was based on the principle of freedom of expression by the Rabbi and members of the congregation. Beth Emet The Free Synagogue was born.

Now grown to over 950 families, Beth Emet is known as a place of healthy contradictions. It retains the warmth of a smaller congregation while serving the expanding and changing needs of a variety of seekers and learners. It is dedicated to life-long learning. It is attuned to the social action that sparked its founders and the hameish-ness and spirituality of many types of worshipers.

The Torah portion for this Shabbat is Yitro. As my congregation greets this milestone, how appropriate, how prophetic that God’s words, as spoken to us by Moses, echo through the millennia:
”…and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy people…” - Exodus 19:6

One Hundred Eighty-Nine

After Fifty Years

You gathered us in.
Grasping our hands and Yours, we leapt
Across the gulf of belief
To found our hearts’ truth.

You gathered us in.
Growing, we watched children learn,
And marriages, and final devotions:
New souls and old, revelation.

You gather us in. Unending Your charge,
We set our hearts to prayer,
Our hands to the tasks. We sing
And discourse, we cry and laugh.