To quote a famous 20th century sage, Dorothy of Kansas, “there’s no place like home”. But what is home? Is it where we sleep at night? Is it where our parents and siblings congregate, the place where we revert to old roles and behaviors? Is it the place our ancestors left, to find their way to someplace else? Is it “an assembling place for the wise”, to quote the Pirket Avot”? Is it the place where we feel safest and most comfortable? The correct answer is yours to choose.
We take care of this place, our “home”. We try to keep it clean, safe and comfortable. We make it a haven from the outside world. We fill it with things that we need, things that make us happy, things that remind us of other people and of places we have been. We collect, we TRY to discard. We take care of the people in our homes. We try to keep them out of trouble, and we try to help them when trouble comes along. Home is where we try to listen to and hear our important people, where we hope that we can be heard. Home is noisy and quiet, busy and calm, soothing and disturbing. Sometimes home is all of these things at once.
And, as members of THIS PARTICULAR community, we hopefully have 2 homes. One we will be leaving for shortly and one here at Oak Park Temple. Hopefully, this is NOT a place where we do too much sleeping. But it IS a place where we spend time, where we can learn and do, where we can be with our parents and children and friends, where seniors and infants can sit side by side. Hopefully, EVERYBODY can be comfortable here.
We need YOUR help to keep this place as a home for all of us now, and for generations to come. Like any home, this one has its issues. The acoustics are awful, the boiler may give out at any moment, and the front doors need replacing. Please keep these things in mind when you pick up your Yom Kippur Appeal Envelope out in the Rotunda. If you are a guest or very new member and there is no envelope with your name on it, please take a blank one. I encourage you to give as generously as you can. If you want to keep this home heated and cooled, staffed and clean, offering amazing programming for both children and adults, and you want us to be able to continue with our flexible dues model, which allows those unable to afford the target dues, to be able to maintain their membership, then please share what you can. Our home here is not as new as it used to be and it is in need of constant repair. Please remember that your dues only cover so much, we count on the funds we collect during this Yom Kippur appeal to keep the roof over our heads from flying off and not onto one of Dorothy’s munchkin land friends.
So, I’d like to conclude by saying “Welcome home” to those of you who are joining us for the first time. And welcome home to those of you who are joining us for the hundredth time. And welcome home to those of you who we haven’t seen since last spring, and to those of you who we haven’t seen for even longer. Welcome home to the regulars and to the sometimes-ers among you. Welcome home to our founders and to our newest members. Welcome home to you who work and teach here.
I’m really glad that you’re all here.
