Rebuilding the Temple

Yesterday's Times runs an interesting article on Evangelical mega-churches and Jews trying to learn from their success. Awesome.

The peanut gallery has already begun to comment on the piece, and what it means for us. Check here, and here.

The article actually says little about the prognosis or lines along which we may find success within our community. Can we learn from 10,000 member-unit mega-churches?

Yes, and no.

Personally, I will never find meaning or comfort in a mega-synagogue. I grew up in one and, the one day a year when a faint majority of the shul showed up - Yamim Nora'im - was always an event much less than inspiring. It's impersonal, removed, and distant. Get the point?

But then, at the end of the article, are three paragraphs which I find fascinating:

“The biggest challenge we have in transforming synagogue life,” Mr. Wolfson said recently, recalling the workshop, “is transforming the basic relationship of most Jews to most synagogues.” He added: “It’s a fee-for-service model. I’m going to write you a check, and you’re going to give me what I need — a rabbi on call, High Holy Days seats, a Hebrew school for my kids. It’s not deep.”

Mr. Hoffman said the most obvious exception in the Jewish world was the Chabad movement of the Lubavitcher Hasidim. Its success at what is called “inreach,” meaning proselytizing unobservant Jews, has become a source of fascination, envy and enmity. In a strange way, it may have been less controversial for Synagogue 3000 to emulate Christians who are total outsiders rather than a Hasidic sect that competes for the same pool of Jewish souls.

“Jews need to be more quote-unquote evangelical,” Mr. Wolfson said. “We need to do a better job of presenting Judaism to our own people. The story doesn’t get across that Judaism is a way to find meaning and purpose in your life. And that’s another lesson I’ve learned from the evangelical model.”

Success, it seems, has nothing to do with glitzy prayer or packed stadiums of shul-goers. No. It happens on an individual basis - one-on-one connections that teach meaning and give purpose and make people feel wanted and important. That can happen in a shteeble and a Temple. It's just a question of how to change the equation of normal shul-going relation.

Chabad succeeds at selling a very Judaism-like religion to the masses of Jews. No reason why we can't do it better.

Thoughts?