The Jewish year rolls into spring, as it’s done since the beginning of history.  This month, RPC considers some fascinating questions that affect how we apply our ancient heritage to religious life at Temple Beth Am.  Every interested member is welcome to join us at our May meeting, which will be on May 11 at 7:30 p.m.

We have a treat in store: the third-grade class, which has researched Jewish practice on mezuzot throughout the year, will send student representatives to discuss adding more mezuzot to Temple.  In response to the students’ inquiry, which was their own initiative, they’ve been invited to present their arguments on condition that they support their views with Jewish sources and are prepared to answer questions from the Committee, as would be asked of any presenter.  The Committee will then consider the matter, and may make a recommendation to Sandy and the Rabbis.

Also at the May meeting, we will again take up the food policy, as I explained in the April bulletin article.  There will be discussion time, during which motions to decide the matter (that is, to make a recommendation to the Board) will not be in order.  Such motions will be in order at the June meeting.  This discussion is highly sensitive, and it must be done with careful deliberation and with sensitivity to the needs of every community member.

I’d like to communicate clearly about what the goal of the food-policy discussion is, and what it isn’t.  Food is important to Judaism both in our ritual and as a symbol of our practice, so this matter takes on significant emotional weight.  Our community currently suffers from confusion on whether meat is to be expected at b’nai mitzvah luncheons, which leads to an understandable if unfortunate (and rather too familiar) debate whenever meat is served.  Our current policy does not prohibit meat, but neither does it clearly permit it.  We need to find an end to the cycle of this discussion.  By proposing that RPC recommend a policy—one way or the other—I’m proposing not to restart or revisit the discussion, which has been perennial, but to end it, in a way that hopefully everyone will find satisfactory.

Above all, our goal is not to make a bold statement on the future of Reform Jewish practice.  Our goal is to eat lunch together, in peace, as a single community of people whose kashrut practices differ.  We don’t just coexist at Temple Beth Am; we create a warm, welcoming Jewish community together, for all our members, families, and children.  The most important practice we can adopt, and the most important example we can set for our children, is not to either eat meat or not eat meat.  It is to join together as a diverse community around shared food, in a way that everyone can live with, to create a single Jewish extended family of worship and friendship.  When our children see us achieve that goal over lunch—far more than whether or not that lunch includes meat—they will learn what our beliefs as Reform Jews are all about.

Jewish history will go on, whichever policy RPC recommends on meat.  It’s an important question, but we must recognize that the future of Judaism doesn’t depend on the adoption at Temple of our own family’s practices, because our practices differ.  The future of Judaism does depend, however, on our creation of a community of friendship around Reform Judaism, in which our diverse community feels comfortable gathering together.  With or without meat, that community-strengthening work will help determine the future of Judaism.