Parshas Vayakhel: Our Adelaide Kehilla

Community is a very important concept in Judaism.  However, as we see with many words in the English language, “community” is not an adequate translation of the original Hebrew.  In Hebrew, there are three words for the one English word “community.”  And, as former Chief Rabbi Sacks once pointed out, each of them has a different meaning.  Here in Adelaide, which are we?

The first word for community is “edah.”  “Edah” means community, but it comes from the word “eid,” which means “witness.”  So an edah is a community that has witnessed something – together.  Together, the Jews stood at Sinai and witnessed G-d speaking.  They then became an edah, of one mind.  They became a homogenous community.  But this does not seem to fit the description of our Adelaide community.  Although we may all be Jewish, we all have differing ideas of what that means to us.  Some of us keep kosher, others don’t. Some keep Shabbat, others don’t.  And we are all very different people with diverse interests and personalities.

The second word for community is “tzibbur,” from the Hebrew “tz-b-r,” which means “to heap” or “pile up.”  A tzibbur is what happens when a bunch of random people are thrown together in one place.  When you show up at the Kotel to daven with a group of people, you are a tzibbur.  You will likely never see those people again, but you’ve come together temporarily out of a common interest (praying).  Adelaide, although a community composed of many and varied people, is not a tzibbur.  We are too small for that.  We all know one another and see each other time and again.

The third and final word for community is “kehilla.”  A kehilla is something of the best of both worlds.  It is a gathering of diverse people who intentionally come together to accomplish a goal.  This can be good or bad.  The Jews at the golden calf were a kehilla.  So were the Jews in this week’s parsha who came together to make donations to the mishkan.  Ah, so this is the Adelaide Jewish community: we are all very different individuals, but we come together to make things happen, hopefully for the good!

And there are many opportunities to be a part of the kehilla in Adelaide.  Like the Jews in this week’s parsha, we can come together to give tzedaka or to build things like sukkot.   We can come together weekly for Shabbat services, to help make a minyan.  We can come together to do mitzvot, like visiting the sick or cheering the elderly.  We can come together to celebrate the holidays, like Purim, which is coming up, or Pesach, which is not long after.

I doubt Adelaide will ever become an edah, nor would we want it to.  We love the diversity and individuality of our members too much.  And we don’t want to see it become a tzibbur, with the members coming together so infrequently that they don’t even know one another.  We love our little kehilla and hope it stays this way: diverse and strong.  So come be a part of the kehilla! We look forward to seeing you!

Shabbat shalom!

Read more on Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei: Finding Our Mission in Life
Read more on Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei: Building a Home for Hashem