Trying to look outwards

What is a synagogue if not a place where we rejoice in our similarities? We come together because we have a shared story, a shared history and a shared vocabulary. We have a shared means of expression and faith which only becomes personal when it is internalized but the expression of that personal faith is in the shared expression. The problem is that with the focus on what we have in common we become closed off and segregate ourselves. With a history of persecution we build big gates as our victim mentality lives on.  We ghettoise ourselves through fear and the worry of assimilation leads us to close ourselves off. 

Yet our challenge is to become 21st century Jews. We have to learn to tear down the walls which segregate us and build our Synagogues with windows that look outwards.  We have to remember that we are part of the community at large, we are residents of Fallow Court Avenue, we are part of the community of Barnet, we are citizens of London and we have a responsibility to the global community of which we are also so much a part.

In the book of Daniel we read:    
"When Daniel learned the news, he went to his house, to the upper chamber, in which he had had windows made, facing Jerusalem (in order to pray)..." (Daniel 6:11)

 The Babylonian Talmud, uses this quote to make the comment that,
“A person ought not to utter his or her prayers in a room without windows,” (Tractate Berakhot 31a) 
Finally Rav Avraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, during its initial resettlement in early 20th century, taught one interpretation of the Talmudic saying above. The windows, said Rabbi Kook, are to remind us that even during our innermost meditation, even in the middle of our prayers, we must be aware of the outside world. We must not withdraw from the world and pray only for our own needs.

We need to be responsible citizens, always looking outwards when we pray and always building community with the every action, word and thought. 

Rabbi Miriam Berger