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SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP
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EgnlLQP-%hés Week,_naJfledn2£d€5bfii%5bt, we had our Annual General
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Meeting.
An A.G.M. is not an event pfeculiar to synagogues.
On the contrary,
we think of it as part of the pattern of British life in general, rather
than of Jewish life in particular.
It is standard practice in commercial
companies and voluntary societies of all kinds.
There is usually a
Presidential Address, followed by the presentation of the Annual Report
Questions are asked and answered.
and Accounts.
and voted upon.
are elected.
Resolutions are moved'
New officers
Retiring officers are praised and thanked.
Then the members of the company or society go home, content
that its affairs are in competent hands for another year.
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That would not be an inaccurate desgription of what took place
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Of course, we realise that a synagogue is not a
commercial enterprise.
Therefore there is not so much talk about
productivity and competition and the value of shares; and the meeting
is usually, though not always, conducted in a more decorous and
charitable way.
We even make some passing refergnces to the religious
purposes and activities for which the synagogue exists.
the A.G.M. is primarily a business meeting.
rative side of the synagogue's life.
make
It
Nevertheless
belongs to the administ—
And if the rabbi is invited to
a few remarks, it is in order that the other side, the
religious
,side, should not be entirely forgotten, rather than because it is the
main subject of concern. 'The religious side has, in an§ case, its own
A.G.M., which is called Rosh Hashanah.
Such a dichotomy is of course false, harmful and unJewish.
Judaism
has always protested against the division of human life into two
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'departments,_spiritual and material, sacred and secular, even at the
social level.
How much more is it bound to oppose such a departmental—
From a truly Jewish point of view,
isation within the Synagogue itself!
the whole life of society should be permeated with religion; how much
more the life of a religious congregatmon.
Every action should be
religiously motivated; how much more an actiqn on behalf of the synagogue.
And therefore the administration of
a
synagogue is not a secular activity,
but a sacred activity, and a synagogue's A.GJM. is replete with religious
I
significance.
To be more precise, those who administer é éynagogue are engaged in
the fulfilment of a mitzvah, of a religious duty, which our tradition
describes by saying that they are os'kim b‘tzorchey tzibbur,‘bccupying
And this is a mitzvah
themselves with the needs of the community".
which ranks extremely high among the mitzvot;
According to the Palestinian
Talmud (Berachot 5:1), ha—osek b'tzorchey tzibbur k'osek b‘divrey torah,
"he who ocbupies himself with thé needs of the community is equal to him
who occupies himself with the study of Torah" — and that is the highest
praise imaginable from a Talmudic rabbi!
Again, there is a principle in
Jewish Law, ha—osek b'mitzvah pgtur min ha-mitzvah, that "he who is
engaged in the performance of one religious duty is at that time excused
from another" (Sukkah 26a).
And this principle was applied both to those
who study Torah and to those whg attend to the needs of the community.
At that time they are exempt, fbr example, frun going to a funeral or
from participating in public worship.
a
Communal sgrvice, therefore, is
religious activity which, in some circumstances, ranks higher even
than prayer.
The spirit of this aspect of our
kerifla t
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‘
h£££i§§ea is beautifully expressed
in a prayer which is traditionally recited every sabbath morning after
the reading of the Torah: "May he who blessed our fathers, Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, bless all this holy congregation, together with all
other holy congregations; them, their wives, theflr sons and daughters,
and all their dear ones; those also who unite'to establish synagogues
for prayer, and those who enter them to pray; those who EEEEXXKHEK donate
candles for lighting, and wine for Kiddush and Havdalah; who give bread
for the wayfarers, and charbfiy for the poor, v'chol m; she—os'kim
b'tzorchey tzibbur be'emunah, and all those who occupy themselves
in faithfulness with the needs of the community"‘(Singer's Authorised
Daily Prayer Book, 1962 edition,
Sometimes when
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203).
‘
attend a Council meeting and listed to a complicated
discussion about the details of synagogue adminisyration — about membership and subscriptions and salaries and redecoration and the cemetery —
I ask
myself: what does all this have to do with religion?
remember the words of that prayer, and
I
But then I
realise that we are engaged in
an activity as sacred as when we read from the Torah or proaounce the
Priestly Benediction.
This tradition of communal service is happily very much alive im
Anglo—Jewry, and not leagt in our congregation.
It owes much to the
British tradition of noblesse oblige, that those who possess certain
advantages, by reason of wealth or leisure or education or ability,
£§§ecertain obligations to those less fortunately placed.
But it owes
at least as much to our Jewish heritage, which places communal service
above all other religious duties.
At any rate, we are very fortunate,
and we may feél justly proud, that so many of our members have given and
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do give dedicated service to our Synagogue itself and to the community
at large; a tradition often handed down within the family from generation
to generation.
Among other things, therefore, we wish this morning to
M,
pay tribute to those who are relimpishing synagogue offices, or positions
on the Council, after many years of service; who feel that they have given
m
to the synagogue what they were able to give! or that it is time for others
to have a turn and to bring to bear Egggg taiente.
a noble and unselfish act.
As the Midrash says,
v'kasheh lgggg, "It is easy to go up
(Yalkut Shim'oni, Va'etchanan 6).
on
This in itself pan be
the rostrum, but hard to go down"
There is, however, one weakness in Angloalewry, and not least in our
Synagogue.
It is that communal service is tOo often equated simpLy with
Communal administration is indeed necessary,
communal administration.
as well as a noble and religious activity.
It involves leadership.
something more than that.
we are sadly deficient.
But communal serfiice involves
And inmthis respect
We have, of course,’our rabbis, and it is they
first and foremost who should provide the leadership.
is the task for which they have been trained.
This, after all,
But if We look at the
present state of the Anglo—Jewish community, we see few rabbis able to
exercise effective leadership, and the few are too often prevented from
doing so by the fiction that they are merely officials hired to perform
a
strictly limited set of functions.
This in itself is bad enough.
But
it is made worse by the fact that the gap is not filled by the lay
officials either.
For while the rabbis are merely conductors of ritual,
the lay officials are merely administrators, and meanwhile the community
as a whole is katzon asher eyn lahem ro'eh, "like sheep which have no
shepherd" (Numbers 27:17).
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We shall never have
a
healthy community until rabbis and laymen
exercise real leadership, sharing the task as Moses shared it with the
elders.
What, then, does leadership involve?
administration?
How does it differ from mere
Well, in the first place it means caring for people,
taking a personal interest in them.
That is the point of our Haftarah.
In it Ezekiel condemns the rulers of Israel, whom he likens to shepherds
who feed themselves instead of feeding their éheep.
Now
it is true, at
any rate in our synagogue, tha} those who take offi.ce or serve on the
Council do not do so for the sake of any personal advantage, not even
"ggzgg" — or kudos, in case your Greek is better than your Hebréw.
There
is no question of self-enrichment or self—glorification. The Talmud says
that God weeps over the Synagogue President who exalts himself above the
congregation.(Chagigah 8b).
danger of that.
In our congregat;on there has never been any
Our first President, Claude Montefiore, set a splendid
example of humility by declining to have a special seat of honour.
I
am told that he always used to sit at the béck of the Synagogue.
In fact,
And
‘his successor has folloWed that fine tradition. But though our modern
shepherds do not feed themselves, they still need to ask thmmselves whether
they are doing enough to feed the sheep.
The rulers of Israel whom Ezekiel
condemns_mag have been perfectly gocfiadministrators, The charge against
them, apart from the fact that they were greedy for personal gain, was that
they did not take a personal interest in their citizens.
It is fascinating, by the way, how frequently this metaphor of the
shepherd recurs, not only in the Bible, but in Rabbinic literature as
well.
As the Midrash points out, Moses and David, the two greétest leaders
-6of Israel, began by being shepherds.
proved themselves.
It was in
this capacity that they
By their loving concern and so&1citmde for their
sheep they showed that they were worthy to become leaders of men (Exod. R.
2).
The Rabbis also draw in attention to the'verse in the 19th chapter of
E;odue, vayyered mosheh min ha-har g; ha-am, "And Moses went down from the
mountain to the people" (19 1a). This, they said, shows that after forty
days of fasting and communion with God, Moses did not attend to his own
needs or go to his own home; his first act was to go to the people (Mechilt
Jethro 3).
So, too, the communal leader must go to the people.
His task
is not merely XEEXKXEXXHKXKX to administer the synagogue's affairs, but
to help and guide its members.
human E§§§§K§.
His work is not merely paper work, but
His place is not merely in the Council Room, but among
the congregation.
which distinguishes him
But there is one other duty incumbent on the leader, KKXEXKKXHKX from
V
the mere administrator.
fig Eggfi Egg an example/to those whom he leads.
And in the context of_the synagogue, he must exemplify those qualities
for which the synagogue stands and which it seeks to inculcate.
The
men whom Moses chose to share the leadership of the people with him
were to have four qualities.
They were to be anshbz cha 11, men of
They were to be anshez gmgfi, men of truth, trustworthy peopie.
They were to be son'ez Egfigg, unbribable, men of immaculate rectitude.
ability.
But they were also to be xir'ez elohim, God—fearing.
Ahd"God-fearing"
in Hebrew does not have the vague connotation which it has in English.
Yir'at elohim, the fear of God, is the Hebrew term fof religion.
a
God-fearing or religious person is not just a person who believes in
God and leads a decent life under the influence of ihat belief.
a
And
He is
personuwho observes the mitzvot, who fulfils the obligations which
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Judaism imposes upon him.
And these obligations are threefold: torah, afivodah and ggmilut chésadim,
study, worship and good deeds.
A person, therefore, who aspires to leader—
ship must be, and must be known to be, one whq is diligent in the study of
Judaism, faithful in attendance at public worship, and dedicated to human
service and philanthrbpic endeavour.
And ali this is to be looked upon, not as a counsel of perfection or
a remote ideal, but as an
ineluctable obligation and an immediate necessiyy.
It is essential here and now if we are to have a healthy community.
For,
to quote a Midrash and to revert once more to our pastoral metaphor,
bizman she—ha-ro'eh to'eh, ha-tzon to'in acharav, "when the shepherd
goes astray, the sheep go astray after him" (P.D.R. Eliezer, MO).
Today we are welcoming and honouring two new Officers of the synagogue
and four new Council members.
We are grateful to them for what they have
done for us and what they will do, for the efforts and sacrifices which
they have made and will make so that we may enjoy the amenities of synagogue
life.
We may be sure that they will be good administrators.
more than that.
But We expect
We eXpect that they will be shepherds of Israel, who will
care for their sheep qnd lead them in the right paths; who will help all
of us to fulfil the prophetic ideal: "And they shall know that I, the Lord
their God, am with them, and thét they, the house of Israel, are my people..
For you are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and
the Lord God" (Ezek. 34:31).
I
am your God, says