Long Island's Oldest Reform Congregation
140 Central Avenue - Lawrence, NY 11559
(516) 239-1140

A number of years ago, while visiting in Budapest, I drove by a large synagogue. The front was very impressive, but as I drove around, I realized that only the front portion was standing. The main structure had been bombed in an air raid, and what remained was the external edifice. We can create beautiful buildings, but the structure only remains a frontispiece if the internal life of the congregation does not radiate worship and learning.

I am very proud that our temple is not only physically beautiful, but has within it men and women who are the real sources of beauty and holiness.

I visited a large synagogue in Vienna. It seemed very drab. It had not been decorated or painted in many years. There were few stained glass windows. The ceiling had been patched. The floors were in poor shape. The Sanctuary did nothing to arouse feelings of spirituality. There was no music, just the chanting of prayers in Hebrew. There was little that was spiritually uplifting.

Then a woman entered and sat down on a well-worn wooden pew. She removed a plastic bag from her purse. Out of the bag, she removed a prayer book. She clutched the prayer book in her hands, closed her eyes, and began to pray silently. As I watched the intensity of her face, the drabness of the synagogue left me. I realized that the Shehinah, the spirit of God, was not in the structure, but in the intensity of worship that radiated from her. Then she took the book, placed it in the bag, took the bag, put it into her purse, and then she departed.

I don’t know who she was, but the experience revived in me the difference between the philosophy of the Greeks and the philosophy of Judaism, The Greeks emphasized the holiness of beauty, through statues, and buildings. But this philosophy did not stop the Greeks from being a slave state. The building was enshrined. The person was demeaned.

Judaism emphasizes the beauty of holiness. Whether the Temple be drab or beautiful , the spirit of God is in the people. While our temple is magnificent, we recognize that God’s spirit is within us, and thus emanates throughout.

I recall a gentleman in a hotel in Prague. He operated the small lift which could handle perhaps three or four people. He had a jaunty manner, and from his speech and demeanor, I sensed that he was not a professional elevator operator.

Next to him was a small table, and three or four cigarettes were lined up each day next to a fresh bowl of flowers. He told me he had been a concert singer, but the Communists had taken his job because of his political views. He said, “they took my work, they stole my voice, but my soul, my spirit, will never be theirs. Then I realized that the flowers and cigarettes, so perfectly lined up, were his expression of defiance. That hotel, whose lobby was filled with Russian secret service, housed a gentleman whose soul could not be extinguished.

Let us rededicate ourselves to God, and to our covenant with him. May God’s spirit within us bring beauty and light to the beauty of our temple.