What we believe
EVERYONE COUNTS
We believe that everyone is imbued with an inherent human dignity, entitled to kindness and respect, and endowed with gifts that are needed by the larger whole.
We strive to embody that belief by making our community accessible and welcoming to all, regardless of financial ability, gender identification or sexual orientation, race, age, disabilities and abilities, Hebrew skills or Jewish education.
We invite non-Jews to participate fully in all aspects of our congregation, with the exception of those specific actions which can only be performed with integrity by someone who has committed to being Jewish.
CONNECTING TO COMMUNITY
We seek to balance individual rights with communal responsibility, and to embody Hillel’s words, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me; if I am only for myself, what am I; if not now, when.”
We believe religion should help us internalize our connection to the ever wider wholes of which we are each a part — the community, global humanity, and the web of creation.
SEEKING THE SACRED
We seek a connection with the holy – moments in which we experience a Oneness, feel accompanied, or discern what is asked of us.
Some of us are comfortable with God language, others of us prefer non-theological terms, many of us are unsure.
We seek an honest and evolving expression of both belief and doubt, understanding that the life of the spirit usually includes times of each.
We seek a mature theology, one that can assist us in managing life’s most challenging questions and experiences.
COMFORT AND CHALLENGE
We believe that a synagogue should offer solace and support in difficult times, but that religion should help us manage and navigate life’s challenges, not avoid them.
We believe that a synagogue should be a place for personal growth, and that the role of religion is not merely to affirm but to hone and sometimes challenge our values, beliefs, and character.
We believe that Judaism ought to guide us in approaching societal problems and policy questions. This is not to advocate for individual political candidates, but to understand that remaining silent in the face of the pressing moral questions of our day is an abrogation of the Torah’s demands.
We strive to follow Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s injunction that life is not a pursuit of pleasure but an engagement for service.
LIVING TORAH
We believe that every one of us has a share in the ongoing conversation that is Torah.
We believe that the Bible is an anti-fundamentalist text, one that demands interpretation and discussion, and that its expansive range of meanings is a hallmark of its sanctity.
We believe that the Torah’s purpose is not to recount historical fact but to offer a process of encountering ultimate truths, through which we can elevate ourselves and our world.
We believe that ultimate truths reside in the holding and balancing of irresolvable tensions and competing values. As Niels Bohr’s famously said, “The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth…A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a great truth.”
We believe that we are stewards of a grand and sacred tradition, and that we are obligated to pass it on to the next generation not merely preserved but bettered.
“Know that a person needs to cross a very narrow bridge. The essential thing is never to make one’s self afraid.”
— Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav
We strive to be both humble and courageous in discerning when and how to reinterpret Torah, guided by its three meta-commands of choosing life, caring for the vulnerable, and upholding human dignity.
PRAYER AND PRACTICE
We believe that regular religious practice is a means by which wisdom and understanding take root as good character, and insight translates into action.
We believe that prayer can take many forms.
We embrace the traditional liturgy -- the collective anthology of millenia of Jews’ aspirations and yearnings, gratitude, and grief -- for its power to uplift and to contain, and to express what we are unable to put into words or sometimes even feel.
We also embrace our need at times to put aside the prayerbook and pray in our own words, explore our own thoughts and feelings, or simply meditate in silence.
We believe that prayer in community is necessary but insufficient; the community supports and inspires our prayer, but the moment of prayer takes place within the individual heart and soul.
We believe that belief in God is not a precondition to prayer. We may pray to connect with aspects of ourselves, or as a means of calling ourselves to account or refining our aspirations. We may pray to experience ourselves as connected to something larger than ourselves. And sometimes, the process of praying is itself the path to discovery of the Divine.
