Thursday Kavvanah, 8/18/2011 - Building Relationships Between Individuals

The second level of relationship-building that a faith community should be committed to is finding ways to connect people to each other, bein adam le-havero. One way of doing this is to build affinity groups; that is, to feature activities that bring together people with commonalities. Synagogues have traditionally done this through groups that categorize people by age, gender, or stage in life: seniors, young couples, men's club, sisterhood, and so forth. There are other groups that we can try as well: professions, hobbies, reading groups, and so forth.

Looking around the room at the minyan (morning service) attendees today, I saw that everybody who was willing to give an hour of their day, beginning at 6:45 AM, was fairly well-connected to others in the synagogue community. Only very rarely do we get somebody at morning minyan who is not.

But it is not enough to put similar people together in the same room. We must then offer ways for each person to share his or her own story. Telling one's own story, and listening to those of others, helps to build those personal bonds. We need more of this.

Tuesday Morning Kavvanah, 1/4/2011 - Comfort Zone

Our chapel is being painted slowly, and so this morning's minyan was held in the Blue Room, a far less inspiring location for tefillah. In a quick poll this morning, I determined that at least half of the attendees felt less comfortable in the temporary digs. There is indeed something to the idea of maqom qavua, one's regular place for davening.

But more than that, tefillah requires a framework of regularity to work properly. It's not just the maqom qavua, but also the siddur, the mindset, the paraphernalia (i.e. tallit and tefillin), and so forth. Certainly, every now and then an inspiring moment can be had elsewhere, but one's own comfort zone is the best place in which to hear the qol demamah daqah, the still small voice.