Volunteer Shabbat: How do we balance? Who has time?
Fri, September 23, 2011
Our members Mike and Sally Berman are off on a six-month sabbatical and their first stop is Yale. Sally is keeping a blog and on Thursday, she sent a picture of the dinosaur in front of the Peabody Natural History Museum. It is a life-size bronze sculpture. Sally describes that the video recounting how the sculpture was made revealed that one step included six months of volunteer time making little clay scales to cover the entire dinosaur. I was struck by the fact that they measured the creation of this sculpture in “volunteer time,” as if it were a commodity or an ingredient in a recipe. What a wonderful idea!
As we conclude our 25th anniversary year, I started thinking about Temple B’nai Shalom. We have talked a lot about the past 25 years, but we have never even tried to measure how many volunteer hours, days, years, it has taken to create this amazing congregation. We may only be 25 years old, but imagine how many years of people’s lives, as dedicated volunteers, it has taken to make us who we are today. In volunteer time, I would guess it has taken millennia. At the Board meeting on Tuesday night, the Board unanimously agreed that it would be great if we could clone Ann Miller, our tireless membership recruiter. I know there are many volunteers I would love to clone on a yearly basis.
What I love about our volunteers is the fact that they don’t ask the questions before us tonight. How do we balance? Who has time? And if on occasion they do, they adjust their time commitment and expectations to create the balance. I love how our volunteers make declarative statements: “This temple is important to me and so no matter how busy I am, no matter how many responsibilities I carry, I will make the time to volunteer, because it is important for me, for my family, and for the Jewish people. If I don’t volunteer, I won’t feel complete as a Jew/as a member/as a human being.”
My wonderful husband, Gary, is one of those volunteers and my role model in a living a life of mitzvah. He is one of the busiest people I know, living with work stress every day, and yet, he has spent his life volunteering as a teacher in our YES program, teaching our 8th and 9th graders about Reform Judaismand Judaism and Christianity. I don’t know anyone who could do it better. Our kids are the beneficiaries of Gary’s knowledge, and I am the beneficiary of his mitzvah, as he lights up with joy, knowing that he is making a difference in their lives, and for the Jewish people, by getting up every Sunday to teach, and sending e-mails to parents, even when he has no free time.
In his book, A Purpose Driven Life (on p. 306), Rick Warren lists God’s five purposes for a Christian life.
The first two are Jewish:
- Love God with all of your heart –V’ahavta (Dt. 6:4f.)
- Love your neighbor as yourself – Straight from the Torah Leviticus 19:18: “V’ahavta l’rayahcha kamocha.”
Pastor Warren’s book has sold millions of copies and tens of thousands of congregants pass through his church each Sunday. He begins one chapter, “Blessed are the balanced; they shall outlast everyone.”
He doesn’t begin his discussion asking “How do we balance? Who has time?” He teaches that when we have a purpose driven life, the balance and time come. He says that most people struggle with three basic issues in life:
- IDENTITY: “Who am I?”
- IMPORTANCE: “Do I matter?”
- IMPACT: “What is my place in life?”
As we take the sacred journey to High Holy days, we find ourselves asking these very questions. How we answer them, determines how we spend our time, our money, and how we live our lives. I believe that a volunteer needs to answer the first and third questions. You need to know who you are and what you view your life’s purpose to be. But, it is the responsibility of the synagogue to let you know how important you are — how much you matter.
This is not just true for our volunteers. It needs to be true for all of our members, especially the non-Jewish members who give of their time, raise Jewish children, and choose to be a vital part of synagogue life. We need to make sure you know how important you are not just to us, but to the survival of the Jewish people.
I found a quote from Leonard Mays, “I believe that the individual counts — that I count, that what I do as a volunteer in my community counts, that what I say and think count.” So, we can’t tell our volunteers enough – You really do count!
Sometimes, volunteers become frustrated when they perceive that others are not doing their fair share. There is a story I remember from a sermon I gave many years ago:
A teacher used the system of placing gold stars next to the names of children who answered questions correctly. One day she dropped the box of stars and they fell all over the floor. She got down on her hands and knees working hard to pick them all up. (Remember we used to lick those stars?!) The children in her class watched in fascination. Finally, the teacher looked up and said in a frustrated voice, “Isn’t anyone going to give me a hand?” Immediately, all the pupils began to applaud enthusiastically.
We need to do more than applaud those who get down on their hands and knees in the trenches of volunteering. We have to be taught to give our time and our money to others. For most people, it doesn’t come naturally. Sometimes we do applaud the selflessness of others. I admire our local State Senator, George Barker, and his wife Jane, for taking in 13 foster children over the years, for example. I applaud people who do what I don’t know I could do. But, applause is not enough. We must let those people inspire us to find our way of giving, our way of loving God and our neighbors enough to take our valuable time and energy and, yes, dollars, to give to something that does not directly benefit us, and may at times be inconvenient or hard to do. That is why I will keep putting up the pictures of every man and woman who has lost their life fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan in my classroom. Volunteering to sacrifice must be recognized. This sacred house of God must honor service to our nation. And we are so happy to honor Colonel Risa Morris as she prepares to leave for war this week.
In his book, Building a Successful Volunteer Culture, Charles Simon debunks myths about volunteers. He says everyone has time. “It’s true that life is more complicated and busier now than it was twenty, thirty, or forty years ago; however, forty years ago life was not simple, either. People will come forward if they sense a need, feel that they are needed and are treated in a dignified and respectful manner.”
Busy people make time, when that time is valued. Balance comes when we live our lives based on Torah and Jewish values, first and foremost, and we find the time when we live on God’s calendar and keep our eye on eternity. As I told my students, there is nothing, NOTHING, you could have to do on Wednesday night and Thursday that is more important to your life, your future, your soul, than being here in Temple for Rosh Hashanah. There is no test or class more important, no job or conference more compelling, no task that can’t wait. It is a matter of answering, “Who am I? Do I matter? What is my place in life? with Jewish answers.
This week’s Torah portion Deuteronomy 30:11f. states:
“Surely, this Mitzvah which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond your reach… No the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to do it.”
In the next paragraph God says we have a choice, and God wants us to choose to walk in God’s ways.
How do we appreciate our volunteers who walk in God’s ways? Let me count the ways…and let us all begin by honoring you for the blessing you give to our temple.
As we stand before God on Wednesday night, approaching Rosh Hashanah and seeking to find meaning for our lives through mitzvot, I am reminded of something I read this summer, in a D’var Acher to Voices of Torah. Rabbi Jeremy Schneider of Arizona, quoted our wonderful colleague Rabbi Don Goor of California, his friend and mentor, who shares the story of a Chasid who once came to his rabbi in tears. “I feel so paralyzed. I’ve tried hard to repair the world and it does no good – it’s just hopeless. The world is still filled with sin.” The rabbi very patiently embraced the man and explained,“Have hope. Before you change the world, you must start with yourself. And after you’ve repaired yourself, repair your community. And after your community, repair your nation. Know that then you will have begun to repair the world.”
To each and every one of you we honor tonight. Thank you for finding the time to repair our community. Thank you for sustaining our TBS world.
Rabbi Amy R. Perlin, Temple B’nai Shalom, 9/23/11
Shabbat Nitzavim/Vayelech