Jewish Community for Wherever You Are......
Wherever you are geographically,
Wherever you are spiritually......
It seems fitting that our little shul is positioned at the head of a great valley that has served as a historical gateway for lifetime journeys. That valley, known in Pennsylvania as the Cumberland Valley and in Virginia as the Shenandoah Valley, provided a roadway for travel in the early history of the United States and before that for Native Americans living in our region.
Temple Beth Shalom in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania is located at the northern gateway to that valley. For over 50 years, our shul has served primarily as a Gatherer of Jewish Sparks. Jewish legend speaks of each Jewish person being born with a Jewish spark in their soul, even if they were not even born into a Jewish family. As that person travels through life, they can encounter certain catalysts which can fan that Jewish spark into a larger flame. Temple Beth Shalom in Mechanicsburg began in order to be a shul located in an area where there was very little Jewish community. We rapidly became a gateway through which many Jewish souls on their own individual journey could travel and enter into a larger Jewish world. As they entered, their spark of Jewish identity was fanned into a larger sense of belonging, even as they sometimes moved on to other parts of the world or other Jewish communities.
As a result, our network is spiritually diverse and geographically disbursed. Yet 21st-century technology has now provided ways for us to weave community together across these differences and distances. Using such modes as our website, social media, Zoom, video, in-person gatherings and shared but personalized individual practice, we are able to connect with each other in shared actual or virtual spaces, and at shared moments even where we are not in the same space. We are united by our shared celebrations, shared learning, shared practices, shared commitments and shared emotional support.
SHARED COMMITMENTS
Temple Beth Shalom Spiritual Fellowship is inspired by a Talmudic teaching that is often quoted in the Siddur (traditional prayer book):
These are the things of which a person eats in This World,
and the benefit accrues into the World To Come; and they are:
honoring father and mother, acts of lovingkindness,
early attendance in the House of Study morning and evening,
receiving guests, visiting the sick, welcoming the bride, accompanying the dead,
concentration in prayer, fostering peace between people;
and the study of Torah balances them all.
[Talmud Shabbat 127a]
In the context of our own lives this passage translates as follows:
These are the ways by which we enhance life in the here and now,
with an eye toward the larger good; and they are:
honoring parents and heritage;
acts of kindness;
participation in the holidays, celebrations, commemorations and functions of our community;
hospitality and embracing people;
emotionally supporting and physically caring for those with illness, troubles and affliction,
joining with each other to celebrate joyful rites of passage;
joining with each other to mark difficult rites of passage and to engage in acts of remembrance
in honor of friends, family, loved ones and community members who have passed away;
meditation, prayer and contemplative devotion;
fostering peace and repairing the world;
with life-long study and learning as a beginning and ending point.
SEVEN SHARED PRACTICES
We consolidate these teachings into our Seven Shared Practices, seven being a Jewish number
of shlemut, wholeness and completion. Each of us have our own personal variations on how we
live out these Shared Practices, but by expressing ourselves in these seven ways we are each
asserting our involvement with the Beth Shalom Spiritual Fellowship:
1) Community (Kehilla)
2) Study (Talmud Torah)
3) Shabbat and Festivals (Mo’adim)
4) Personal Devotion (Avodah)
5) Acts of Kindness (Gemilut Hasadim)
6) Pursuit of Justice (Rodef Tzedek)
7) Integration (Shema)
Each of these Shared Practices, and how we live them out in our Fellowship, are described
more fully on their own page.