BS"D || Rabbi Geier

Community Spirit: Celebrating Our Shared Heritage and Traditions in Utica

What an incredibly beautiful and exhausting community month we have had. I feel the enormous need to remember it with all of you.

I want to start by recalling the celebration of Yom Ha'atzmaut that we enjoyed on May 19 at the Capitol Theatre in Rome.

It was a beautiful and heartfelt display of performing arts. An exquisite dance troupe honored us with their visit from Argentina, expressing their feelings through their dance, taking us on a visual journey from the anguish of the Shoah to the emotion and joy of the creation of the State of Israel. Personally, I want to thank Diego Berman, the director, and the entire troupe, not only for their dedication and professionalism but also for allowing me the honor of accompanying them by singing during the performance.

The next stop was the joint Shabbat we shared at Temple Emanu-El with the participation of the Sandcatchers. It was a luxury to see members of the Beth El and Emanu-El communities praying together while enjoying the accompaniment of the band invited for Jewtica 2024 and the emotional farewell to Rachel Smith upon her move from Utica. Special thanks for the varied and delicious dinner provided by the people of Emanu-El.

We continued with Jewtica 2024. I sincerely believe that this event represents us as the entire Jewish Community in Utica and the surrounding areas. Not only because of the variety of food, shows, and cultural options to enjoy for both adults and children and the variety of vendors who came with their products, but because we once again managed to ensure that from the idea of a few (special mention to Joe Silberlicht and Victor Pearlman), hands and wills joined together, without differences regarding what type of Jews we are, to continue learning from mistakes and finding consensus year after year to achieve a showcase of who we are: Proud Jews of Utica, or better yet, of the Mohawk Valley.

Jewtica was followed, almost without rest, by Shavuot.

Personally, I feel enormously satisfied with the depth of the Tikun Leil Shavuot (a kind of Torah class before the giving of the Torah on the morning of Shavuot) that we shared on Tuesday night, the 11th. We fulfilled the custom of preparing to receive the Torah by studying, and we exchanged thoughts about the 10 Commandments. But above all, we created a space for community and respectful and fruitful study.

These were weeks of hard work for many people who made it possible for all these events to take place and be successful. However, if there is one thing they all had in common, it was the lack of more people (except for the Kabbalat Shabbat at Emanu-El, which had a large attendance). 

At the beginning of the book of the Torah that we are reading, I shared two weeks ago, in my commentary of the parasha, (the weekly Torah portion) that Bamidbar begins with a census (a count) of the Israelites. That is why this book is known in English (and also in Spanish) as “Numbers.” 

By counting, the individual is devalued and tends to become replaceable. If a soldier dies in battle, another will take his place. If a person leaves an organization, another can be incorporated to do their job.

There is, therefore, a danger in counting a nation, that each individual feels insignificant. “What am I? What difference can I make? I am just one among millions, a mere wave in the ocean, a grain of sand on the shore, dust on the surface of the infinite.”

The answer lies in the phrase the Torah uses to describe the act of counting: se’u et rosh, literally, “lift the head.” This is a strange, indirect expression. Biblical Hebrew has many verbs that mean “to count”: limnot, lifkod, lispor, lajshov. Why does the Torah not use one of these words and instead chooses a twisted expression “to lift the heads” of the people?

Then God told Moses to “lift the heads of the people,” se’u et rosh, and show them that each one counts, all are important as individuals. Lifting someone's head is equivalent to showing favor, recognizing them. If a census is taken in this way, it is a gesture of love. This census, and the language used to describe it, sends a clear message: in Judaism, we believe that each individual matters.

Each person present matters and each person absent counts. 

We need each of you for every event, prayer, class, or project that each congregation of all those that make up Jewish life in the Mohawk Valley organizes. We cannot continue to say that we can watch from afar or find out later how it went.

The sufficiency of a society to build and strengthen itself is based on the collaboration of all its members; even more than being just a few within that society. 

It is much more difficult for us to finance, build, and strengthen ourselves if only a few members bear the burden and effort of all. Just as we do in civil society, where we all must vote, we all must pay our taxes, in the same way, we must all contribute to keeping our congregations economically and financially healthy and with members participating in the activities that make people find that identity in the congregation that makes them feel “at home.”

As part of the Jewish People, from our place in the diaspora, we are part of an army outside of Israel of millions of Jews who must care and work to ensure that the state of Israel remains standing and triumphant and that our people grow stronger day by day. WE ARE ALL responsible even with the disagreements we may have in our different ways of thinking, politically or religiously, or in our different customs. 

The events around us in the world and in American society repeatedly demonstrate the validity of Hillel's words in the Talmud in the tractate of Avot 1:14, “Im ein ani li, mi li”: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? “Ukshe ani leatzmi, ma ani”: And when I am for myself alone, what am I? “Ve im lo achshav, eimatai?”: And if not now, when? 

Do not wait any longer. It is time to participate and strengthen ourselves, as individual congregations and as an entire Jewish Community.

I sincerely hope that at our upcoming events, High Holidays, Sukkot, and projects (such as Temple Beth El’s installation of the Memorial Boards), we have more present than absent.

Have an excellent month of Tammuz and enjoy the summer!