My Dear Friends,

L’shanah Tovah – it’s very good to see you here tonight! As I look out at the sea of familiar faces it feels like nothing has changed since last we all came together to greet another year. And yet, of course we all have changed – as much as we’d like to think that we haven’t.

This point was driven home to me the other day at Coronado Mall. It’s not often that one has an epiphany at a shopping mall – but I did. A couple of weeks ago, I found an old pair of pants in my closet -- my favorite jeans. You know the ones I’m taking about: they fit perfectly. They’re worn out in all the right places. I slipped them on, and, to my great chagrin – I couldn’t button them. Now I hadn’t worn them in a while but I had no idea how this happened – maybe I washed them in hot water. Anyway, as a result, I found myself at the GAP® looking for a new pair of jeans.

It’s been a while since I’ve bought a pair of jeans. It’s been even longer since I’ve been to the GAP®. The salesman asked me what kind of jeans I wanted.

• “Blue,” I said.
• He smiled patronizingly and asked, “Do you want traditional fit? Relaxed fit? Worker fit? Slim, tall, retro? Do you want Blue, washed blue, broken in blue, stonewashed blue……”
• “I just want a pair of jeans,” I said.

He must have seen the glazed look in my eyes because he immediately sized me up and said: “‘Relaxed Fit’.”

I told him my size and he found them and sent me off into a dressing room loaded down with several pairs of jeans. I slipped them on and, strangely, they were all too big. I called the salesman over and he said, “Hmmmm – try these.” And he handed me a pair of pants that were three sizes smaller than I had originally asked for. Now you need to understand, the last time I wore pants that size, I was in college and disco was cool. I told him that there was no way that they would fit. “Try them on anyway,” he said. And so I took that pair of ‘relaxed fit boot cuts’ and tried them on. They fit like a glove! It was amazing! I was 20 years old again! I was back in college. Man did I feel good!!!!

I bought 4 pairs….

“Those 2 days on Atkins last month must have done the trick,” I thought to myself. I was skinny. I was svelte. I was a new man! It was time to redo my entire wardrobe. I ran home, opened the closet and grabbed a pair of my old trousers. I slipped them on: you guessed it – not only did they fit – truth be told, they were a bit snug. It was then that I realized that “relaxed fit” was a code word for “three sizes too big”.

The marketing wizards at GAP® understand exactly how to motivate us – simply tell us what we want to hear – let us see ourselves in the way that we want to be seen – the way that we used to be – give us a momentary fantasy that nothing has changed since we were young. That’s the way to sell an awful lot of denim.

Truth be told, it’s not only corporate executives who try to paint a rosy picture of the present – we all do to some degree. We want to see ourselves like we do in the dressing room of a clothing store: reflected in the best light – unchanged, eternally young. We spend billions of dollars on cosmetics, clothing, and other gizmos and gadgets that are designed to slow the aging process and help us hold on to the fantasy of our seemingly better, youthful selves.

But it’s not only in the arena of aging that we want to slow down, ignore or even reverse the effect of change – it’s endemic to almost every aspect of our lives. Tonight is Rosh Ha Shanah. Tonight we engage in the age-old process of reflecting on the past year. Tonight, we have no choice but to see ourselves as we really are – not as we’d like to be seen – not in the words of the salesmen and women who flatter us – but as God sees us – stripped of the distractions and diversions that we create in everyday life. Tonight we come here to acknowledge the fact that, like it or not, just as the world is one year older – so are we.

Earlier this summer, when I began the process of thinking about what messages I wanted to deliver over the holidays, I decided to return to a theme that I introduced my very first year here at Congregation Albert: the theme of change. Seven years ago, in my first Erev Rosh Hashanah sermon, I reflected upon all the changes that had been taking place in our congregation:

• We were welcoming a new Rabbi,
• We had a new Administrator
• We were about to embark on a search for a new Cantor
• We were entering into our Centennial year,
• The congregation was growing

That was a lot.
And now I stand before you, seven years later, and tell you that we are STILL in the midst of change. Think about it:

• We have a new administrator
• Cantor Shuchat-Marx, after six wonderful years as our Chazzan, is moving on in her career and will be leaving us in the end of June.
• We are about to embark on the search for a new Cantor.
• Our membership is expanding rapidly. We have been growing at an increasing pace over the past seven years. When I first arrived, our congregational roster was somewhere around 540 households. Last year, at this time, we numbered approximately 650. This year, it is projected that our numbers will exceed 700 households.
• Our religious school is bursting at the seams. Some of our classes have had to be divided in two. Classrooms are overcrowded with barely enough room to fit all the needed desks inside. This puts added stress on teachers and students as well.
• We have seen much sadness this past year. We lost a great and visionary leader with the untimely death of our president elect - Geoffrey Kalmus – of blessed memory.
• Our past Administrator, Jim Oringderff - also of blessed memory, died suddenly over the summer – after being with us for only six months – leaving our new president, Gary Singer, with the dual responsibility of stepping into his new position and serving as interim administrator while we engaged in a search for a replacement.

Change was endemic, not only for our congregation but throughout the world.

• This past year, our nation went to war in Iraq.
• Terrorism continued to wreak havoc all over the world.
• We saw a dramatic increase in the violence in Israel and the growth of global anti-Semitism in the guise of anti-Zionism.

It has been a stressful year for all of us – a year of change – much of it painful.
Not all of the changes that have taken place over the past year have been difficult, however. Some of it is very exciting.

• This past Tuesday, we received word that Congregation Albert was the recipient of a prestigious award by our parent movement, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. We were recognized as a unique “Congregation of Learners” for our outstanding adult education program. This is truly a special honor. Only 11 congregations around the country received this honor – out of over seventy that applied. Kol HaKavod to Leah Schaer – our Director of Education, Jane Wishner and Susan Keith who submitted our application – Cantor Shuchat Marx who helped with the final editing and the rest of the Adult Education Committee and all of the teachers and students who come to this synagogue to learn and increase their knowledge and celebration of Torah.
• This past summer, Camp Oranim – the wonderful summer camp that we create in the mountains outside of Santa Fe – was filled to capacity with joyous campers and counselors. The energy and enthusiasm of that week-long community was exhilarating.
• Our Caring Committee, under the inspired leadership of Shawn Perry Turner and the supervision of Cantor Shuchat-Marx, has continued to increase the way that it provides our membership with the mitzvah of Bikkur Cholim – visiting the sick – delivering meals to shut-ins and spreading cheer to those who are ill.
• Our sisterhood has graciously and generously provided funds for the renovation of our social hall. This project is almost finished. I’m sure that many of you noticed the new carpeting, lighting, painting and the storage area that is being built in the rear of the building.
• We also received a generous bequest from the estate of Geoffrey Kalmus that will help us to create a much needed lounge in the foyer outside of our sanctuary. This will provide us with a place to gather together, socialize, study and relax in our synagogue.
• Our office staff, under the leadership of our new Administrator, Ilana Locke, has weathered a tremendous amount of change and has done so with incredible loyalty, professionalism and competence – making what could have been a very tumultuous period in our congregation’s history – much smoother than one would have imagined.
• Our leadership continues to excel in their commitment to our congregation and its program. I feel blessed to be part of such an incredible group of hard-working men and women.
• During the past year I was away for three months during the first half of my sabbatical. During this period of time, we participated in the beta-testing of a new prayer book, Mishkan Tefillah that was quite controversial. We welcomed many scholars in residence and members of our congregation taught torah and helped lead services. Cantor-Shuchat Marx, along with the rest of the staff did a wonderful job of making sure that everything went smoothly – often under difficult circumstances.

These are but a few examples of the wonderful way that our congregation is serving our community. We are a thriving and growing congregation. I’m excited about the possibilities that lay ahead. Growth, by definition, implies change. And with change often comes controversy. Some people thrive on change. Others find it stressful. The impact of all of the changes that were taking place in our congregation this past year became very clear to me when I saw the reaction to a “Rabbi’s Column” that I wrote in the June/July Bulletin. The purpose of the column was to address the issue of the rising number of unaffiliated Jews in our community. I had hoped to call attention to this fact and to urge those of you who either were unaffiliated or who knew others who were unaffiliated, to join a congregation – any congregation – it didn’t matter to me. In my remarks, I reflected on the fact that the Cantor and I are frequently contacted by local hospitals and nursing homes when there is an unaffiliated Jewish patient who is in need of pastoral care. I wrote, among other things, that several years ago the Board of Trustees requested that we refrain from providing pastoral services to non-members in order to ensure that we can meet the needs of our own congregants. I spoke of how painful it was to say “no” to many of these requests.

In my seven years as your Rabbi – and, truth be told, in the nine previous years that I served in Minneapolis -- I have never received such a powerful reaction from a bulletin article. (I guess this means that you DO read my columns…..) Many of you wrote me impassioned, heartfelt letters pleading with me to make myself available to non-members. Some of the letters expressed anger. Some were unsigned and, truth be told, some were not very nice.

One of the problems of writing a column within a prescribed limit of 250 words is that there’s not a lot of information you can put on the page. If I had known what a powerful response my article would have generated, I might have added a few more facts. The truth is that while the Board of Trustees made their request of us several years ago – more often than not, when we receive such requests we try to help in any way that we can – especially in the case of an emergency or a tragedy. There have been many times when we have dropped whatever we were doing in order to rush to the hospital to offer comfort in an emergency situation to a non member. If we are not able to meet the needs of a family due to other commitments, we always do our best to find another member of the clergy who can help, or, if that isn’t possible, to connect those in need with a member of our congregation who could be of service. I’ve told many people “If we can’t find anybody else to help you – we’ll take care of you – don’t worry.”

It is interesting to note that many of you who wrote me letters expressing your dismay about our inability to serve the unaffiliated are long-time and committed members of this congregation. You remember quite clearly how, in the early days, our congregation’s rabbis served the entire Jewish community. Things were much simpler then, weren’t they? Everybody knew everybody else. If a new Jewish family came to town, they were immediately welcomed into the community. But times were different then. We were much smaller. As much as we try to be welcoming – sometimes we miss the boat. Our congregation has grown by over 160 households over the past seven years. That’s a lot of change in a very short period of time.

Rapid growth can be unsettling. But it can also be invigorating.

One of my highest priorities this next year will be to help us to confront the fact that we are growing; we are changing – and changing rapidly. The way that we approach this growth will have a powerful impact on the future of Congregation Albert. We may need to add additional professional staff or clergy. We may need to expand our building to meet our needs. We will need to look deeply at what we have been doing in the past and seek new approaches for the future. These are important decisions that will impact on our congregation’s ability to meet the challenge of the future – the challenge of change. This will not be easy. It will require extensive preparation and planning by the congregation and its leadership. Our budget will have to be retooled and, it is quite possible that those who are able to dig a little deeper will be asked to raise their dues to make this happen. But think of the opportunities that lie in front of us if we confront our growing pains head on …..

I once heard it said that there are 3 ways to deal with change:

• We can make things happen;
• We can watch things happen;
• or we can sit back and ask the question: “what happened?”

Our task – that of each of us who care about this holy congregation: the clergy and staff, the leadership and all of our members – is to forge a partnership that will not only make things happen –but will create a dynamic environment where change and growth will be managed in a healthy way – where we will create an environment where our change is transformative – not additive; where we can celebrate our strengths and rejoice in the possibilities that lie before us.

One of the ways to do this is to listen to the message found imbedded in one of the key texts of the High Holy Days:

Hashiveynu Adonai Eylecha. V’Nashuva, Chadeish Yameynu K’kedem.
“Help us to return to You, Adonai, and we will return. Renew our Days as of Old.”

This prayer that is part of our High Holy Day liturgy is also the climax of the Torah service. We say it when we return the Torah to Ark on Shabbat morning. I believe that it contains a key ingredient for understanding the power and the purpose of change. The last three words: Chadeish Yameynu K’kedem –have many meanings.

On a literal level, Chadeish Yameynu K’kedem means – “renew our days as of old.”

Chadeysh – renew.
Yameynu – our days
K’kedem – as of old.

In other words, it seems to teach that as we renew ourselves and our community – we need to hearken back to the “good old days” – the times when things were simpler, more holy, perhaps. We return to the days that we remember with nostalgia: when our blue jeans really were 3 sizes smaller; when we knew everyone’s name in the congregation; when it was a lot easier to say “I’m a Zionist” without having to explain yourself.

And yet, the word K’kedem has another meaning as well. As Rabbi Ronald Wolfson* teaches the word kedem also implies anticipation. In this way, our prayer, our call to Teshuvah can also be read as: “Renew our days as we anticipate the future.”

In other words,

• when we renew our days, our selves and our congregation, we look ahead and bring about changes that will help our community to grow and to thrive. We commit ourselves to become the best that we can possibly be.

This is my vision for Congregation Albert. I want us to grow – not only in size, but in sanctity.

• I want us to renew our commitment to our youth -- to ensure that our students will have adequate classrooms and educational programs – both formal and informal.
• I want to us to have a vibrant youth program where our children will find opportunities to experience the joy of Jewish living with their peers.
• I want us to renew our commitment to diversity in our congregation and community by continuing to create programs designed specifically for young families, empty nesters, older members, interfaith couples, singles, gays and lesbians, Jews by choice and non-Jewish partners.
• When we renew ourselves, we reach outside of our congregational family – building bridges with the Christian and yes, even the Muslim communities in our city. We raise our profile of Tikkun Olam – repairing the world – working in partnership with other agencies to eliminate the social and economic ills that plague us.
• When we renew ourselves we reaffirm our love for, and connection and commitment to the State of Israel and her people – who need our support and love now more than ever.
• When we renew ourselves, we look ahead to the future and up to the very heavens. We examine the way that we pray – and try to create new paradigms of worship that will bring us closer to God and to one another.
• We fill our sanctuary with beautiful music that inspires to find God within ourselves and our souls.
• When we renew ourselves we ensure our economic future by adequately funding our congregation – by creating endowments that provide for the next generation and all those who will follow. We celebrate our lay leadership and create opportunities for all to serve – we mentor new leadership and actively recruit those who wish to share in the adventure of creating a holy community.
• And finally, when we renew ourselves, we ensure that we have enough professional and support staff to create and implement the programs that will make all of this happen.

My dear friends, we are a dynamic, growing congregation that is facing a tremendous amount of change. Change isn’t always easy -- but it is very exciting. No matter what we do – change will come. How we deal with this change will impact who we are becoming. As we grow in size and program. As we work together to continue to create the holy community that is Congregation Albert, I ask you join with me in partnership as we embrace all that is to come while celebrating all that we have been and that we are now.

Chadeish Yameynu K’kedem -- “renew our days as of old.”

As we anticipate the growth and the changes that are taking place around us, let us look back on the visionary leadership and the strong foundation upon which our congregation was built 106 years ago. Let us continue to be the caring and creative community of learners who are dedicated to Torah, spiritual growth and Tikkun Olam.

Chadeish Yameynu K’kedem - “Renew our days as we anticipate the future.”

Let us move forward in our quest to grow with courage and commitment to the ideals of our faith and promise of the future.

May the coming year, 5764, be a year of growth and renewal. May we look ahead with confidence and have the faith to celebrate our past. May God continue to bless us with the light of Torah and the promise of peace.

AMEN – Shabbat Shalom,
L’Shanah Tovah Tikateyvu.

* Dr. Wolfson writes in the forward to Dr. Isa Aron’s book, The Self Renewing Congregation. 2002 – Jewish Lights Publishing pp. vi-vii.