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Let’s talk minyan. Ten is a number in Judaism that is greater than the sum of its parts. It implies totality and completion. Ten is the number of times G-d utters, “Let there be,” and with it, creates the universe. Ten are the commandments that make up the meta-categories of all of Jewish Law. Ten are the generations from Adam to Noah, and then from Noah to Abraham. Ten is the number of plagues which were the catalyst to launch and liberate the Israelites from Egypt. Ten are the emanations for the “Infinite One” that enables G-d to unfold from mystical transcendence to spiritual access and proximity. And, ten people are the number that makes up a rudimentary community.
A minyan is a precious phenomenon in traditional Jewish thought. Ten individuals praying together make up a community of Jews. They reflect all of the divine arrangement of ten “Emanations of God,” and in a sense, mirror a divine aspect. It’s combined prayer helps stir the heavens above to the earth below. The Mishna teaches us that ten people praying ushers in the presence of the Shehina, God’s immanent quality. And a minyan, of course, introduces the necessary “holiness” level that allows for the recitation of Kedusha and of Kaddish and the chanting of the Torah in the morning services. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, a minyan conveys the message, that a Jewish communal whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. I believe that this is a valuable message that has sustained Jewish community over millennia. Put bluntly, if individuals were as big a deal as a community of ten, there would probably be no Jewish people. We would have evaporated into a million different fragments long ago.
We hope to serve you and your family well by providing the necessary communal backdrop to support your recitation of Kaddish during some very difficult moments of mourning. But we cannot provide this without many others paying backwards and forwards. By this I mean, some of us have been there in our mourning, but after our year or months of attending is over, recede into the shadows again. Some only become conscious of its fragility when they have a new obligation of saying Kaddish, having considered it someone else’s problem prior to their personal need.
I must tell you that in all honesty this approach is not working. Our minyan is becoming progressively more attenuated. It is particularly weak Thursday, Sunday evening, and sadly, Friday evening–and on Friday evening and Saturday morning we cannot utilize the phone. My friends, there is really no excuse for this. We are a congregation of some 270 households.
So I urge three things:
- Adhere better to the cards or e mails that come your way when your turn comes up.
- Consider joining ENJC’s minyan “Group Me” app, modern technology’s new way to help in real-time. (Click here for information)
- Determine that you will help more on a consistent basis. Mark your calendar for the times that you can reasonably commit to. For instance, the first and last Thursday of each month or every third Friday night.
My friends I am well aware of the multiple commitments and stresses each family bears that make minyan-going a challenge. But please remember minyan-going must be something you prioritize, because it is never a guarantee and it depends on willing participants such as you. All of our regulars have conflicts too, but on the day they designate, they prioritize their time. Ignoring this problem will aggravate it further and one day there will be no minyan when you need one. Help build up our minyan so that you may be called “a builder of holy community”. Become a valued regular “minyanaire” for our sake and yours.
May I take this opportunity, along with Beth, Marc and Alan, to wish all congregants a joyous and Kosher Passover