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Rabbi’s Message

Dear Friends,
A man walks up to a stonemason who is working on a building and says, “What are you working on? How do you like your job?” The mason replies, “Well, I’m building a wall. It’s hard work. I’ve got to lift heavy stones, chisel them with this hammer and I’m out in the hot sun all day, day after day. But, it’s a job and it pays the bills.” The man then goes over to another stonemason
working on the same project and asks the same questions. This second mason replies, “Well, you know, it’s hard work. I’ve got to lift heavy stones, chisel them with this hammer and I’m out in the hot sun all day, day after day. But, I love my job and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. After all, I’m building a synagogue, a House of God.”

I am honored to be your rabbi. Over the past ten years it has been my privilege to celebrate, grieve, study, pray, and to engage in acts of chesed and tikkun olam with you, to walk with you along life’s many, varied, often unpredictable, pathways. I love my job and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

Together we have built a wonderful, dynamic synagogue community. I could not be prouder of what we have accomplished, nor overstate the value of the bonds that we have built.

But we cannot rest on our laurels. There is so much yet to be done.

This past Rosh HaShanah, when I first shared the story about the two stonemasons with you, I spoke about the “why” of our congregation. I said to you that “Temple Sinai transforms lives. Our ‘why’ is to give us—all of us—this holy place; Temple Sinai, in which to transform our lives, so that our lives are filled with meaning, purpose and love. What could be more important?”

We transform our lives by building community; by creating and nurturing the relationships and bonds between us. We transform our lives by inspiring people through the study of our sacred texts and the experience of Reform Jewish living. And we transform our lives by challenging people to hear God’s call to them and to answer, Hineini: I am here and ready to do what God needs me to do.

I am asking you now to say Hineini with me by joining me in participating in Temple Sinai’s Capital Campaign. Just like the work of the stonemason, building our Temple community is hard work. But when we recognize its sacred purpose, that labor becomes a labor of love, and our work gives our lives meaning. The result is our spiritual home, one that fulfills our community’s highest aspirations and helps ensure a strong future for us, for our children and for generations to come.

L’shalom U’v’reiut—In Peace and Friendship,
Rabbi Jordan Millstein

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