One of the final prayers of the service is “Alaynu.” The word “alaynu” literally means “it’s on us” or “it depends on us.” The Alaynu concludes our worship with a prayer of hope for the future, when all acknowledge God’s presence, when peace and harmony prevail, and all is right in the world. The great, modern Reform philosopher Eugene Borowitz said: “We seek God as a partner in every significant act, we invest our deciding and doing with direction, worth, hope, and in failure, the possibility of repair.” (Mishkan T’filah, page 283, CCAR Press, New York, 2007). Thus, we conclude each worship service with a prayer of hope for ourselves and the world.
It's been difficult to feel that sense of hope since October 7th, the ensuing war, and uprise in blatantly overt acts of antisemitism around the world. Yet as a Jewish people, we are a people of hope. We do not give in to despair, to anguish, to loss. We have many models of hope during times of great calamity, war, and crisis. This is exemplified by this piece of writing, written on a cellar wall by an anonymous Jewish prisoner in Germany during the Holocaust: "I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. I believe in God even when he [sic] is silent."
Since October 7th, the Jewish community has joined together in unity, solidarity, pride, and hope. We firmly believe in an envisioned future. We understand that our future is dependent upon not only our dreams and aspirations, but our actions and deeds as well. We fully understand that it is “alaynu” – dependent upon us. If our future is to come alive with the reality of our envisioned hopes and dreams, it is dependent upon “kulanu – all of us.”
Here at TBS, our Kulanu Task Force has been particularly active in working to make our world a better place through thoughtful and intentional action. (Kulanu is a synagogue program of the national Antidefamation League – the ADL. We are one of several hundred synagogues that was chosen to be part a special cohort of synagogues fighting against antisemitism through various modalities. TBS’ Kulanu Task Force, under the extremely capable leadership of Mike Rubin, (under the auspices of our Social Action Committee with Steffanie Belasco) has been extremely active. It is the largest of our TBS committees with 18 members. We meet bi-weekly, and educate, advocate, and fight against antisemitism in various ways. This evening, the Kulanu Task Force is sponsoring our Kulanu Shabbat: a special Shabbat Service of Solidarity, Unity, and Pride, followed by dinner and a discussion and preceded by a preneg. (See below for details.)
Our Kulanu Task Force’s and my efforts will be honored by the national ADL on June 20 as one of the most active and engaged Kulanu Synagogue Cohorts in the program. Earlier last week, the ADL wrote to me: “Temple Beth Sholom of Orange County has been an incredible partner in the fight against antisemitism as a congregation in Kulanu, ADL’s national synagogue engagement program. We are grateful for your community’s active efforts to educate, engage and advocate, and we are appreciative of how involved your Kulanu working group members have been in our nationwide network of congregations…We would like to invite you (i.e., me) to start the program with a three minute d’var Torah or learning session about Hakarat Hatov (expressions of gratitude), and we hope you will accept our invitation to deliver these words of inspiration and wisdom to our national Kulanu community.”
I am so proud of what TBS’s Kulanu Task Force is accomplishing. The concepts of “alaynu” and “kulanu” are part of what drives them to persevere, be resilient, courageous, inspirational, innovative, and continue their good work on behalf of TBS and the Jewish people. However, we cannot accomplish our work alone – we need all of you to join us in our endeavors.
In 2022, I gave a sermon on Yom Kippur on antisemitism. I ended the sermon with these words, which still resonate so deeply for us today: Our Torah reading for this morning says: “I set before you today life and death, blessing and curse, choose life that you and your offspring may live.” Let us choose life by eradicating hate and choosing life, for ourselves, our children and generations to come. As Elie Wiesel stated: “We must choose between the ugliness of hate and the will to oppose it….Between inflicting suffering and humiliation on our fellow and offering the hope we all deserve” by our actions, deeds, aspirations, and hopes.
Ani v’atah n’shaneh et ha’olam – together, you and I can change the world, kulanu, together, all of us. Alaynu - It is dependent upon us.
We invite you to join us this evening for our very special Kulanu Shabbat.
