An Active Endeavor: The Difference Between A Shul And A Kehilah

Parshas Vayakhel 5785

A number of years ago, the Jewish Action—the magazine published by the OU—ran a feature on out-of-town communities. One article featured a quote I’ll never forget, stated by Rabbi Ronald Schwarzberg, the director of the Rabbinic Placement Office of the RCA and RIETS. Commenting on the notion that a dynamic rabbi could single-handedly build a thriving community, he stated, “Show me a rabbi that built a community, and I’ll show you a rabbi who was in the right place at the right time.”

Community building is more about the efforts of community members than it is about the efforts of rabbis. Even the greatest rabbi of all time. 

Whereas it was always the responsibility of Moshe Rabbeinu to disseminate the Torah he’d received from Hashem to the Jewish People, the process of doing so was not always to gather the people as a whole, as one Kehilah in order to deliver instruction en masse. When the Torah records that Moshe did make a point of doing so, it should command our attention.

וַיַּקְהֵל מֹשֶׁה אֶת־כׇּל־עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּה ה׳ לַעֲשֹׂת אֹתָם׃ שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תֵּעָשֶׂה מְלָאכָה וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי יִהְיֶה לָכֶם קֹדֶשׁ שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן לה׳ כׇּל־הָעֹשֶׂה בוֹ מְלָאכָה יוּמָת׃ לֹא־תְבַעֲרוּ אֵשׁ בְּכֹל מֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם בְּיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת׃

^{שמות לה:א–ג}

Moshe gathered the entire congregation of Israel and said to them, “These are the items that Hashem has commanded you to do them. For six days you shall do work but the seventh day shall be holy to you, a complete cessation from work unto Hashem. Anyone who does work upon it shall be put to death. You shall not ignite a fired in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

^{Shemos 35:1-3}

What was the critical information—more critical, it would appear, than other mitzvos of the Torah—that called for Moshe gathering the people as one to hear it? It would seem that it was Shabbos, that the call to observe this holy day needed to be presented to the people as a whole.

Yet there is something amiss with specific aspects of Shabbos outlined here. Whereas the preceding pasuk notes that Moshe was delivering a mitzvah that required “לעשות—to do or to make,” the elements of Shabbos discussed in the following pesukim detail those items which must not be done. We must refrain from work and must not ignite fires. Where is the active doing that Moshe spoke of?

The Chiddushei HaRim, the great Gerrer Rebbe, offered a novel solution. He suggested that the “doing” spoken of in the first pasuk does not refer to the keeping of Shabbos mentioned in the subsequent pesukim. Rather, the “doing” is the necessary instruction for fulfilling the very first word of the parsha: “ויקהל—And he gathered.” 

The notion of Kehilah, explained the Chiddushei HaRim, is far more than a group of people merely converging upon a shared piece of real estate. It is more than the happenstance meeting of individuals at a given time in a given place. Creating Kehilah demands “לעשות—it demands doing.”

This is Moshe Rabbeinu’s charge to his people. Moshe, Rabban Shel Yisrael, the greatest rabbi the Jewish People would ever know, could gather the people into one centralized location. But if they were to become a true Kehilah, then “לעשות,” they must be prepared to act themselves, to make their efforts and their own contributions.

Communities cannot be fallen into, they must be actively constructed. Simply occupying shared space may fill the room, may even qualify for a minyan, but it does not create the greater ideal of Kehilah. For that to occur, we need to stretch ourselves, we need to act, we need to do.

Consider the difference between a Kehilah built on activity, on doing, and one that passively comes into existence. It is the difference between a shul in which individuals receive a warm Shalom Aleichem and Good Shabbos even from those beyond their natural social clique. One in which minyanim and learning are strengthened by the dedicated participation of every member, even when not as convenient as other options. In which there is a constant questioning of how we can make those around us comfortable, even at the expense of some of our own comfort. 

A shul is just an edifice. It is through building a Kehilah—not a shul—that we achieve something truly great. But Kehilah is not achieved by accident, but through conscious effort and activity—through “לֹעשות”. A shul can be a place we come to draw from when we have needs. A Kehilah is established only when we’re prepared to flip that script. To consider not how we can gain, but how we can provide. To take stock not of our own needs, but of those around us.