These High Holy Days, we can expect to be together as a synagogue community. People who rarely show up for Shabbat services come to at least some part of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I am not writing this to complain about where people are during the rest of the year; I am writing to thank them – you – for being here on these days. And I am writing to ask you a question: Why? Why be here?

I suspect that you will have various answers: Tradition. Obligation. Teaching tradition and obligation to your children. The precious opportunity to take time to reconsider your path in life and to find spiritual fulfillment in the process. Won-derful music. The rabbi’s inspiring sermons (I can dream that someone will list that, can’t I?).

For many of us, though, I know that at least part of the answer will be togetherness. It will be the opportunity to be with a community that in some important ways is looking for what you are looking for. It is congregating with a congregation.

And this gives me another answer to the question of why you should be here. By “here,” I do not just mean “here” at High Holy Days but rather “here” as a member of this Temple community. The congregation doesn’t exist without you. Your being here enables others to live fuller Jewish lives than if you were not here. Your being here makes their Judaism more complete.

Of course, there has to be more than that. Not only do you have to help make the community work for others, but others have to make the community work for you. We need to strengthen our connections with each other so that no one feels that the Temple is a “they,” or even worse, an “it.” The Temple must be an “us.” Your being here should make you feel more connected to everything that you care about. If that is not happening, all of us have to work to make it so.

We can start by coming together on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Feel the congregating. And let us go from there to make our community the sort of place where the answer to the question “Why be here?” is “Because I can’t imagine not being here.”

Eileen, Kitty, David, Andrew, and I wish each of you shanah tovah um’tukah, a good and a sweet New Year.

– Rabbi Thomas M. Alpert