Coming Home
by Rabbi Adam Chalom

There is a special energy at the end of summer and the beginning of fall—and not just the growing despair of schoolchildren or the eager anticipation of their parents. It is a feeling of coming home.

It is no surprise that our phone rings more frequently shortly before the High Holidays. Many people want to be somewhere other than at home for important Jewish occasions, just as we enjoy American holidays more in the company of friends and family. There is no real Jewish tradition of the solitary, ascetic monk on a mountaintop. Even the Essenes, the Second Temple-era sect that likely produced the Dead Sea Scrolls and lived a rather monastic life, had a very intense community experience. And our major communal institution for the last two thousand years has not been a Beit El—a “house of God”; it has been the Beit Knesset—the “house of meeting,” or the synagogue.

We live in an atomizing world, where it is easier than ever to be lonely. Resources permitting, we are legally and socially free to choose where we live, what we do for a living, with whom we associate, whom we marry and how we spend our leisure time. If Jewish identity is to survive in this experience, we cannot rely on inertia, nostalgia and guilt—these are exactly the emotions most affected by modern living. We need to give people something they want and need. Yes, intellectual stimulation, a sense of roots, exploring issues of the day and personal philosophy all have their place. But at its heart, Kol Hadash is a Humanistic congregation, a gathering of people for community.

Humanistic Judaism appeals to indvidualists who make up their own minds, which can be a challenging target market for a congregation. In addition to the programs and opportunities we provide, there is nothing limiting if individualists enjoy the company of other individualists! A community that supports and encourages you to think for yourself is something new in religion, but familiar to us.

There is a special energy in the air at our High Holiday celebrations—and not just from the choir and the rabbi, who anticipate their ”prime-time” performances. It is the joy of seeing long-time friends and meeting new ones, the excitement of new beginnings. It is the warmth of coming home to Kol Hadash. Welcome to a new year together.