Temple Shalom
of Central Florida
A Word from the Rabbi
Reform or Conservative
I have received two messages in the past few weeks which point to an interesting question about who we are: Are we Reform or are we Conservative?
The answer is: We are a proud Reform Congregation. We will discuss what that means theologically some other time. But, there are many signs which point to who we are:
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Our Siddur Mishkan Tefila is published by the Reform Movement, with much more English in the service.
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We read Torah every Friday night, and we read just one Aliya, not seven.
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We use the movie screens to follow the Hebrew parts of the service.
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I give shorter sermons - sometimes…
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There is no haftorah and no musaf service.
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So, the service is shorter (I like that and so do you!).
When I arrived here six months ago, one of the complaints about me was that “he’s trying to make this into a Conservative shul,” which is clearly not true, for all the above reasons.
I recently received a lovely e-mail from a member who is a regular attendee who initially thought this way. She wrote me last week to tell me how delighted she was that I had added so much more English to the service.
Then I received a call from a good friend and member who was very angry. He told me about a congregant who thought the same way, that I was trying to change this Congregation to become Conservative. He responded that the Search Committee chose me knowing that I was a liberal Conservative Rabbi who would be serving a Reform congregation. Then came the surprise…He told me that she had never been to any Friday night services! He was angry; I was laughing. Why was I laughing? Because as you and I know, we Jews are, shall we say, a “unique people,” we make decisions based on God-knows-what.
Just another day in the life of the Rabbi.
Rabbi Mel
