Thoughts on Shabbat Attendance

Originally posted on December 12, 2025

` At this week’s Board of Directors’ meeting for the Temple, it was formally

announced that Micah Fogel would be assuming the chair of our Religious Committee as long-time chair Dave Fellman requested to step down from that position. Dave indicated that he will continue his involvement with some aspects of the committee’s work, but he felt it was time for someone else to take over the leadership of the committee. Many thanks to Dave who has devoted many hours over the past years to that role in a variety of capacities. Todah rabbah. We are grateful that Micah has stepped forward to take on these new responsibilities and I look forward to working with him and the rest of the committee.

After many years in the rabbinate, I have come to learn that people affiliate with a particular congregation for many different reasons, often not necessarily to join in

regular prayer gatherings. After all, the very term “synagogue” comes from the Greek

συναγωγή (synagōgē) which means a gathering of people, an assembly. That definition

leaves open the purpose for which the group has assembled. Thus, synagogues over

the centuries have had multiple purposes including providing opportunities for social gatherings, celebrating life cycle events and holiday festivities, supporting those experiencing loss and bereavement, educating the next generation, providing

opportunities and resources for continued life-long study, participating and encouraging social action in the community and beyond, fostering interfaith cooperation, hosting guest speakers or entertainment programs, reaching out to neighboring congregations, providing support for the State of Israel and, yes, they are houses of prayer as well.

Temple B’nai Israel and most synagogues try to do all of those things and more

and we recognize that as important as our regular Shabbat and festival worship are to maintaining the character of the synagogue, that may not be the reason why some of our members have joined. However, we must recognize that generally it is through those worship opportunities that people first encounter our community, get to meet people, and decide whether to join this group to pursue their interests among the activities I have mentioned. In such a small congregation as we have become, it is very important that our members find time to join our services from time to time, not only for High Holidays or special occasions. It has been often noted that it is hard to join a group when the group is not present to be joined. We talk about needing to bring in new members, but too often when someone new comes by to meet people and check out our community, they encounter only a small handful of us at any given service and decide to look elsewhere. Yes, we provide a religious service regardless of the attendance. We try to be welcoming and there is always a kiddush or oneg following. However, if one has come for community to socialize with Jewish people, we don’t always provide that opportunity. Our folks are often not here when we need them to welcome newcomers or strangers or visitors.

I would like to urge our members to come more often, to invite their friends or

family members to join them. We always have a service whether there are two people or fifty. We always provide a kiddush lunch on Saturdays thanks to our kitchen volunteers and an oneg, at least tea and cookies, on Friday nights and encourage people to remain after the service to socialize. You don’t need to feel obligated to pray if that’s not your thing; that’s between you and God. We just want to see you. We want to experience the joy of being a community more often. Our sages recognized this phenomenon when they quoted Proverbs, “B’rov am hadrat Melech,” “In the multitude of the people is the King’s glory.” When a large group gets together there is a unique energy created. On the other hand, the Talmud cites a verse from Isaiah, to capture the feeling of disappointment when there is not even a minyan in the synagogue. They imagine God entering and looking around and then quoting chapter 50, “Lama bati, v’ein ish, karati v’ein oneh?” “Why when I came there was no man, when I called there was no answer?”

Traditional worship calls for a minyan for any matter of holiness, “kol d’var kedushah.” Without ten Jewish participants, a quorum, we can’t conduct “holy business” so to speak. We omit certain prayers: barchu, kaddish, kedushah, we do not take out the Torah and call people up for honors. Without a minyan, we are diminished to a degree. A minyan represents the community. For the past several years, after decades of discussion, we’ve expanded the definition of minyan to include women as well as men, yet still we struggle to find enough people to represent the community, a tzibbur.

I’ve suggested to our new Religious Committee chair that we create two lists.

One would be a list of those we have come to expect in attendance almost every week. Sometimes one or another may be out of town or be unavailable to attend. So, we want to check with them first to see if for some reason they will be absent on a given Shabbat. The second list we want to compile is of those who come frequently but not necessarily every week and to add to it those who are willing to receive a call

occasionally on a Thursday or Friday when we know we will be short, to see if they can join us that week. Currently, by my count, we have seven or eight people on the first list and at least another 10 or more on the second. Those on the first list come so regularly that they are expected and usually let us know when they will be away or unavailable.

The second list keeps us guessing. My proposal is not new, but it is that we try to find out beforehand who we might expect from list one and then check with a few people on list two to see if they are available. From long experience, we know that sometimes things come up and someone we might be expecting to come suddenly cannot make it. Thus, the old rule of thumb is in order to get a minyan of ten, call thirteen.

The second suggestion is to get more input on how we might improve our

services. The group that comes regularly are not Reform, but they may be open to

some change to make the service more attractive. Do people want more participation

by congregants in leading the prayers, reading Torah or giving a d’var Torah? Should

we consider some possible ways to shorten the service, keeping the traditional feel, but eliminating some of the extras that are not strictly required? Do people have other suggestions to make the service more attractive? We know that it is a delicate balance and different synagogues find different ways to meet the needs of their constituency.

We do offer a Reform service on Saturdays once a month, our Chaverim service, and that group continues to meet. Our Friday night service now offer a once a month Reform service and potluck dinner which has been popular. We have also made the services on the other three weeks of the month available via Zoom and we encourage you to join us either in person or online. However, we know that not all of our members consider themselves Reform. Some expect a more traditional service on those occasions that they come and we want to meet their needs as well.

It is always a challenge to provide appropriately for everyone’s religious needs,

knowing well that even in a small congregation there are a wide range of opinions.

Let us hear from you. Tell us what you would like to see and participate in and above all, please help us out by celebrating together regularly in the Temple and encourage others to join us.