CCAR RESPONSA
5769.1
Congregational Fund-raising on Shabbat
She’elah
We are a small cash-strapped congregation with about 148 families. A project that has brought in the bulk of our fund-raising money over the last three years has been our participation in the local Hot Air Balloon festival. The festival starts Friday night and continues through to Sunday evening. We have manned some of the “beer booths,” with a percentage of the proceeds going to our synagogue. Most of the volunteers are temple members and some are friends of members.
Needless to say, this has had a mixed reception. Some congregants want it to continue because it brings us much of the money needed to operate and others are mortified that we are fund-raising on Shabbat. The Religious Practices Committee, of which I am chair, has read responsa on fund-raising on the Sabbath and know where the Reform Movement stands on the issue, but none of the responsa match our situation exactly, since in none of the examples did the synagogue in question rely on the money collected to “stay in business,”so to speak. Does the fact that this fund-raiser helps us pay our operating expenses play into whether or not we participate? (Elizabeth Tracey, Hunterdon County, NJ)
Teshuvah
As our she’elah indicates, this Committee has previously addressed the issue of congregational fund-raising on Shabbat. In doing so, we have had to confront the more general issue of shemirat shabbat, the observance of the Sabbath, specifically the traditional prohibitions that restrict various activities on that day. Here, in a responsum published over ten years ago, is how we expressed our conception of that challenge:
The observance of Shabbat is a complex and challenging issue for Reform Jews. On the one hand, we dispense in our practice with many of the traditional prohibitions associated with the day. Put differently, we tend to be more comfortable with zakhor, the various rituals which enable us to “remember” the Sabbath, than with shamor, the requirement that we refrain from a multitude of activities as the proper means to “observe” the Sabbath. On the other hand, it is inaccurate to say that we Reform Jews have no concept of Shabbat observance. The seventh day is for us, as it is for other Jews, shabbat kodesh, a sacred time, possessing a character which differentiates it from other days. An inescapable component of this sanctity is the recognition that certain activities ought not to be performed on Shabbat, for to indulge in them would violate the essence and spirit of the holy day as we perceive these to be. Our list of “forbidden activities” may differ from and be markedly smaller than that maintained by the traditional halakhah, but the spirit behind these prohibitions demonstrates that we regard the issue of Shabbat observance with the utmost seriousness.[1]
That some of our sho’elet’s congregants are “mortified” at the prospect that their congregation would engage in fund-raising on Shabbat is an example of this seriousness. It demonstrates that, alongside our readiness to innovate and to redesign the structure of shemirat shabbat, the concept remains central to our understanding of the nature of the Jewish Sabbath. There is no “Shabbat,” in other words, without shemirat shabbat, the abstention from “work” (however that is to be defined) and from other specific activities deemed contrary to the spirit of that holy day. In particular, we have accepted the traditional Rabbinic-halakhic prohibition against conducting business and commercial activity on the Sabbath. As our teacher Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof wrote in 1962:[2]
According to the Jewish tradition, of course, for any Jew to have a store open on Shabbas is a sin. For a congregation to have it with the knowledge of everybody is a violation of the Sabbath befarhessya, in public, and to do that in behalf of a congregation is also very ugly (mishum miyuss). I am sure that very few congregations would permit themselves this public violation of the Sabbath, but remember, my statement is not official because it is hard for us to find a clear halachic foundation for Sabbath violation. I am telling you merely my feeling as an experienced rabbi of a large, historic congregation. It is my conviction that it should not be done; that it is especially improper for a synagogue to do it; and worse that it is done in public.
Rabbi Freehof expresses this conviction even in the absence of a clear theoretical (or, as he terms it, “halachic”) foundation for defining Shabbat violation (chilul shabbat) in Reform Judaism. During the past several decades, the Responsa Committee has sought to move toward the development of just such a foundation. We have based ourselves upon two fundamental premises. The first is that, since our Reform religious practice is deeply rooted in the halakhic tradition, we are guided by a distinct bias in favor of that tradition. As we have put it, “traditional observances ought to enjoy a considerable presumptive weight in our thinking. As liberal Jews who seek affirm our connection to our people in all lands and all ages, we should maintain the traditional practice in the absence of a compelling reason to abandon or alter it.”[3] The second premise is the renewed emphasis that our Conference and movement have recently placed upon the recovery and strengthening of Shabbat observance.[4] As part of this emphasis, the Conference advocates that we refrain on that day from work and from “all public activity which violates or gives the appearance of violating the sanctity of Shabbat.”[5] Thus, in a series of decisions we have concluded that Shabbat must be viewed not as simply a day on which we assemble for public worship but rather as a mitzvah in its own right, one that makes its own legitimate demands upon our attention. Those demands, moreover, will not infrequently outweigh the conflicting demands of other mitzvot,[6] including such worthy causes as tzedakah and social action projects that involve activities inconsistent with the nature of Shabbat.[7]
The prohibition against conducting business activity flows from this understanding of Shabbat “as a mitzvah in its own right.” Although buying and selling (mekach umimkar) is not numbered among the thirty-nine categories of labor that our sources define as “work,”[8] it has always been prohibited on Shabbat. Our tradition regards the seeking of profit and the striving after gain, even in the service of a worthy cause, as incompatible with the nature of a day that is meant to be devoted to prayer and Torah study, menuchah (rest) and spiritual renewal.[9] As our colleague and teacher, Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, put it: “The ‘work’ that is prohibited by Jewish law on the Sabbath is not measured in the expenditure of energy. It takes real effort to pray, to study, to walk to synagogue. They are ‘rest’ but not restful. Forbidden ‘work’ is acquisition, aggrandizement, altering the world. On Shabbat we are obliged to be, to reflect, to love and make love, to eat, to enjoy” (emphasis added).[10] This is the Shabbat that our Reform Judaism teaches us to strive for and to bring into our lives.[11]
This teaching encompasses work on behalf of the synagogue. Therefore, as we have written in a previous teshuvah, “(w)e strongly discourage the scheduling of congregational meetings and synagogue fund-raising projects on that day, even though it is a mitzvah to support the community.”[12] Our she’elah, though it clearly supports this understanding of Shabbat, asks whether we would argue against congregational fund-raising on that day even when a “cash-strapped” synagogue needs those funds “to stay in business.” We sympathize. Most of us serve or have served as congregational rabbis. All of us are active participants in congregational life. We know (all too) well how difficult it can be to meet the demands of even a modest operating budget, especially in times of economic recession.[13] Yet we find it just as difficult to take literally the claim that this congregation cannot “stay in business” without manning the beer booths at the festival on Friday night and Saturday. We cannot imagine that the synagogue and its leadership can find no other sufficient fund-raising opportunities – that do not involve the violation of the sanctity of Shabbat- to replace the Hot Air Balloon Festival. And even were this claim literally true, we would still agree with those congregants who oppose this project. The very task of a synagogue is to teach the fundamental values of our faith and our tradition. And as we know, the best way to teach such values is to live them. That, after all, is why we are “in business” in the first place.
The congregation should not participate in this fund-raising project on Shabbat.
NOTES
- Responsa Committee, no. 5756.4, “Presenting a Check for Tzedakah at Shabbat Services” (http://data.ccarnet.org/cgi-bin/respdisp.pl?file=4&year=5756). On the identification of zakhor (that is, the reference to Shabbat in the Exodus version of the Ten Commandments, Ex. 20:7) with the positive mitzvot of the day and of shamor (see the parallel in Deut. 5:11) with the prohibitory regulations, see Rashi to B. Berakhot 20b, s.v. kidush hayom mitzvat aseh, etc) and beshemirah.
- Letter of R. Solomon Freehof to R. Martin Silverman, Monroe, LA, 12 October 1962. American Jewish Archives, AJA MS-435: Solomon B. Freehof Papers 2/6. We are indebted to our colleague Rabbi Joan S. Friedman, a corresponding member of the Committee, for this reference. She is the author of Solomon B. Freehof, the “Reform Responsa,” and the Shaping of American Reform Judaism (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 2003).
- Responsa Committee, no. 5756.4 (see note 1). Note 20 of that responsum cites other teshuvot in which this principle is developed. In addition, see Responsa Committee, no. 5757.7, “The Synagogue Thrift Shop and Shabbat” (http://data.ccarnet.org/cgi-bin/respdisp.pl?file=7&year=5757 ),which describes this approach as a “preferential option” for traditional patterns of observance.
- This is expressed in a number of publications, including: Tadrikh leshabbat/A Shabbat Manual (New York: CCAR, 1972); Peter S. Knobel, ed., Sha`arei Mo`ed/Gates of the Seasons (New York: CCAR, 1983; and Mark Dov Shapiro, ed., Sha`arei Shabbat/Gates of Shabbat (New York: CCAR, 1991).
- Gates of the Seasons (see preceding note), paragraphs A-4, A-5, and A-8, pp. 22-24.
- Thus, we maintain the traditional prohibitions against scheduling weddings and delayed circumcisions on Shabbat; American Reform Responsa (ARR), no. 136, AMarriage on Shabbat or Yom Tov@ (http://data.ccarnet.org/cgi-bin/respdisp.pl?file=136&year=arr ) and Teshuvot for the Nineties (TFN), no. 5755.12, ADelayed Berit Milah on Shabbat@ (http://data.ccarnet.org/cgi-bin/respdisp.pl?file=12&year=5755).
- Contemporary American Reform Responsa, no. 176, APoverty Project and Shabbat” (http://data.ccarnet.org/cgi-bin/respdisp.pl?file=176&year=carr), TFN, no. 5753.22, “Communal Work on Shabbat” (http://data.ccarnet.org/cgi-bin/respdisp.pl?file=22&year=5753), and Responsa Committee, no. 5756.4 (note 1, above).
- M. Shabbat 7:2.
- For sources and discussion, see Responsa Committee, no. 5756.4 (note 1, above), section 1, ACommercial Activity (Sale and Gift) on Shabbat@ and the accompanying notes.
- Cited in Gates of Shabbat (note 4, above), pp. 55-56.
- See the sermon delivered by Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie at the Biennial of the Union for Reform Judaism, December 15, 2007 (http://urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=17449 ).
- Responsa Committee, no. 5756.4 (note 1, above), Responsa Committee, no. 5757.7 (note 3, above), New American Reform Responsa (NARR), no. 60, “Fund Raising on Shabbat” (http://data.ccarnet.org/cgi-bin/respdisp.pl?file=60&year=narr ).
- For the record, we write this teshuvah at the beginning of the civil year 2009, a time of severe recession that many experts are calling an “economic meltdown.” The monetary difficulties we normally confront are therefore dramatically increased.
If needed, please consult Abbreviations used in CCAR Responsa.