B”H

More than 24 years ago, I sat down to talk with the rabbi of a synagogue in the Dallas area. It was without question one of the most disappointing conversations I had ever experienced. The rabbi was arrogant and saw himself as the CEO of a corporation. He wasn’t interested in the challenges that many people faced, and I saw that it was likely impossible for him to understand what I now call people on the edges or fringes of the Jewish community.

I was just starting my academic Jewish studies at the Siegal College of Judaic Studies, but I realized then that if I were to ever become a rabbi, then I wanted to embrace the opposite characteristics that the aforementioned rabbi had exhibited. In my mind, one sure way to do this was to abandon the notion of a salaried rabbi position. A rabbi with his own career was critical, at least in my view, to maintaining a connection to the real every day challenges the community I would likely serve would face.

A few years later, Rabbi Byron L. Sherwin of blessed memory, related that during his short career as a pulpit rabbi, he was confronted by a congregant who claimed, “It's easy for you to talk about mitzvot since you get paid to observe them.” I realized that at least for me, a rabbi with the same challenges, struggles, and limitations that the common person faced was critical to appreciating their circumstances as well as encourage them.

So many years later and having attended and graduated from several Jewish institutions of higher learning, the chavurah that was founded so many years ago by a few close-knit families has now matured into a congregation. As we await our lease space after years of meeting in our small home, I think about our mission and what makes us distinctive.

We have a community that is primarily composed of individuals who have returned to Judaism at a later stage in life or embraced it as adults without any Jewish background. We have a community made up of many ethnic minorities. No one in our community is wealthy and the reality is that we even have people that face very real struggles. Many in our community have children that have special needs and challenges, and this includes my own.

All that being said, our community is made up of individuals who actually want to live traditional Jewish lives to the best of their abilities and have often made great sacrifices to do so. There is true modesty, not just in the matters of tzniut, but in terms of humility and compassion and a desire to care for the well-being of members and visitors who pass through our doors.

Zohar Yisrael is a community that takes observance and education seriously but also realizes that everyone is on a journey.

Rabbi Dr. Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez