INDEPENDENT MINYANIM represent some of the most positive aspects of Shabbat in the modern world. They also illustrate a particular challenge around the power of Shabbat.
THE CHALLENGE
AND POTENTIAL
OF SHABBAT
IN COMMUNITIES
by RABBI ELIE KAUNFER
S habbat is perhaps the best gateway drug for an involved Jewish life. For so many in the Jewish community, Shabbat is the clearest expression of the positive aspects of counter-cultural Jewish values. The general culture values electronic connectedness; Shabbat values unplugged fellowship. The general culture values the fast-paced and faddish; Shabbat values slow contemplation and consistency. The general culture values non-stop working; Shabbat values enforced (and sometimes inconvenient) breaks in the work cycle. While Shabbat is not an obvious step for many Jews, because of its counter-cultural nature, those who embrace its deep meaning and value often can’t imagine how they could live without it.
Yet, Shabbat is also a lightning rod for some of the larger criticisms of engaged Jewish living. For many, alienation from Judaism was sparked by a particular Shabbat experience. “I didn’t know what to do in services.” “I felt judged by someone more observant.” “This wasn’t the tune I grew up with.” “No one said hello to me at Kiddush.”
This paradox is particularly acute in independent minyanim. Since the year 2000, more than 100 independent minyanim have been formed across the United States, in large cities and suburbs and, most recently, on college campuses. Tens of thousands of Jews (80 percent under the age of 40) have engaged with these minyanim. For many participants, these services provide their first real expression of intensive Jewish community. And these minyanim are overwhelmingly formed around Shabbat ritual: prayer and meals.
Independent minyanim represent some of the most positive aspects of Shabbat in the modern world. They also illustrate a particular challenge around the power of Shabbat.
First, the positive: Shabbat in an independent minyan is powerful because it is organized around a specific vision of what Shabbat ritual can be. People form minyanim because they have a picture of what Shabbat services, and/or Shabbat meals, should look like. They don’t mean for that vision to encompass all of Jewish life. But for the people who connect to that particular vision (for instance, prayer infused with original music; potluck meals; small and intimate physical settings), it can lead to a powerfully positive Shabbat experience.
When it works well, this focus on a specific vision can have broad appeal. If I attend a service that has a lot of participatory singing, even if I am not familiar with the words or melodies, I can often connect to positive aspects because I see the other people having a powerful experience. This runs counter to conventional wisdom about welcoming synagogues. A welcoming service (with page announcements, greeters and plenty of smiles) can sometimes lack appeal if the regulars don’t connect to the core service itself. It is one thing to be welcomed into a room; it is another to enter a room where something powerful is happening. Of course the best services (in synagogues or independent minyanim) manage to do both.
The same is true for Shabbat eating culture. Similar to many traditional synagogue communities, many independent minyanim value the culture of inviting people for a meal. This happens both organically, relying on a culture of ad hoc hospitality, and through systems of organized hosted meals or of designated hosts for on-the-spot meal invitations. Other minyanim favor regular potluck meals: Come for the davening, stay for the meal. Community is often thickened through the one-on-one intimacy of sharing a meal together, and the benefits of the meal culture often pay back into the prayer culture.
There are of course challenges in independent minyanim around Shabbat, and I want to raise two of them. One is similar to a problem faced by many synagogues trying to welcome Bar Mitzvah guests: How can we best welcome people to an unfamiliar prayer experience, much of which is in Hebrew? The conventional wisdom is to guide the people through the choreography: Stand here, turn to this page, please be seated. Similarly, the written material focuses on the history and structure of the service: The Shema is about God’s unity; the Alenu entered the Shabbat service in the Middle Ages, etc. Independent minyanim typically eschew these guides, but don’t replace them with anything else. Perhaps, however, the Shabbat experience for the first-timer in any prayer community shouldn’t be focused on history or choreographic instructions, but on preparation for an experience. The focus can be more on the aesthetic experience than on intellectual information. Imagine a guidebook or email sent in advance that reads (in part) like this:
Welcome to our Shabbat service! A traditional Jewish prayer service is probably unlike most things you experience in your daily life. You will see people standing, sitting, swaying, bowing. These are all attempts to connect to God through prayer. You will hear music and melodies you have probably never encountered. Some of these are centuries old; some of them were written last year. Don’t worry about following along with every word, especially in translation. Prayer is not about a cognitive experience of the words. We invite you to relax and experience this connection in any way you can. Know that no one is judging you, wondering what page you’re on, or trying to ignore you. We are welcoming you to our intensive prayer space and we hope that your energy (even if entirely non-verbal) will contribute to the aesthetic we are building.
One other challenge around Shabbat: Lived Judaism, especially as played out in independent minyanim, has the danger of focusing solely on Shabbat as the time to express deep Jewish connection. The vast majority of independent minyanim meet only on Shabbat (and some on holidays). But Judaism is not expressed only on Shabbat. It plays out intensely in weekday davening, in communal acts of hesed, or lovingkindness, and in ongoing study opportunities. While Shabbat can be a powerful entry point, we risk it being the only stop in people’s Jewish experience. The challenge for successful independent minyanim is to break out of the episodic experience of Judaism that relies only on Shabbat, and begin to build a culture of Jewish expression and engagement that runs all week long. Whether this happens through independent minyanim or through other institutions or communal expressions, we can’t be satisfied with a successful model that works only on Shabbat. While Shabbat is a critical pathway, it really is only one element in a broader engaged Jewish life. ■
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is the co-founder and executive director of Mechon Hadar (www.mechonhadar.org). He is a Wexner Graduate Fellow, a Dorot Fellow and the author of Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us about Building Vibrant Jewish Communities (Jewish Lights, 2010).
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