Community unleashed

Last night, a dozen members of our community gathered in Jon and Victor’s home (two members of our community) for a Sip & Learn — drinking, learning, talking, and lingering together.

Jon and Victor were marvelous hosts, of course, and we felt grateful for their hospitality. We were also grateful for what the evening represented.

Community needs spaces. We are deeply grateful for Temple 5 and for the many doors that open to us across Harlem. At the same time, community is not ultimately made of brick and mortar — it's made of people. Wherever people choose to gather and enter more deeply into one another’s lives, that is where community comes alive.

Last night's gathering was part of something we are excited to see growing: more programs hosted and initiated by community members themselves. Not every gathering needs to begin with us or appear on an official calendar. Sometimes someone simply says, “Come over. I want to explore this question with you.” Our role can be to help, to connect, to share with others, to bring a little Torah to the gathering — and then to watch what becomes possible when community is unleashed into more homes and more corners of the neighborhood.

If you are inspired to host and welcome our community in your own space, simply reply here or reach out to our Social Committee Chair Rachel Malaga.

Fittingly, Jon asked Dimitry last night to teach about bechirah—free will—and Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler’s idea that only some of the many choices we make are truly transformative choices: decisions made at the living edge of who we are and who we might become. (For more on this idea, read this week's Torah in Harlem insight below!)

Building community works that way, too.

Each invitation, each open door, each decision to move from participant to host may seem small. But these are the choices through which we shape our character, widen our circle, deepen our relationships with one another, and build the community we hope to be part of.