But ask yourself one more question: How often was the average member of the Jewish people at the site of the mikdash? At minimum, three times a year for the pilgrimage holidays of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot.
Beyond that, a person would come to Jerusalem only rarely to pray or offer a gift to God, especially if he or she lived at a great distance. If that is the case, the key to understanding the mikdash, and ultimately shul, is to think about what happened when people arrived home from the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Was there any lasting impact of going up to Jerusalem? Did it stay with them, or was it fleeting?
The answer is that their experience was to carry them and inspire them until the next opportunity arose to travel again. The mikdash experience was to provide the person with spiritual inspiration and sustenance for up to six months (between Sukkot and Pesach). The mikdash served not only as a place to pray, to learn and to meet other members of the Jewish people, but in totality it served as an institution of inspiration for the Jewish person. One’s relationship to Torah, mitzvot and God was to be profoundly altered and elevated by having been there.
Our shuls serve as the same source of inspiration. They must carry us through no matter where we are both physically and spiritually. We must feel connected and uplifted by our shul even if we are at the moment a great distance away. Our thoughts must center around the locus of the shul even as we may be on a business trip in a far off region of the world.
Certainly modern technology helps with our ability to “see” the shul or the rav via the web, but nothing matches the palpable memory of experience during a Slichot or a Neilah or a random Shabbos morning. That is mikdash me’at at its most complete and that is what we strive to provide in our shuls.
It is a most lofty endeavor and one that requires much thought, preparation and training. We are so removed by time from the mikdash in Jerusalem that we can lose sight of what we are trying to accomplish in shul. We can get lost in the details of a program, event or shiur so that the grand picture becomes obscured. Our work is to restore that warmth and soul to our experience in our places of worship, to put a smile on people when they’re asked about their place, their makom.
Our work at the Orthodox Union is fully focused at working with the shul’s klei kodesh and lay kodesh, to match the programs and services that best suit each shul so as to maximize the religious experience. We take each location and strive to find its unique character and then seek out the opportunities to bring out what is essential for them. We endeavor to make shul the institution of inspiration that we know it to be and is meant to be.
We look at the sublime and mundane because both are essential in creating the spontaneity necessary for inspiration.
We can focus on prayer services that can and are often viewed as boring or rote, uninspired and meaningless, to seek out methods of improvement and enhancement. Who is leading the tefilah? How fluid is the movement from one section to the next? Are the people focused? Do they understand what and why they are saying the particulars? Where can we provide the change or improvement to take this shul and its members higher?
That is my concern at the OU as I concentrate on my constituency of hundreds of synagogues. I’ve “got shul.” It’s my job to make sure that thousands of congregants get shul as well.