Dear Friends,
10 is an important number in Judaism—The Ten Commandments, The Ten Days of Awe and the Top Ten Reasons to Love and Support Solel. Please allow me to present them to you.
1. We mark the sacred moments of life: Babynamings, B’nei Mitzvah, weddings, anniversary celebrations, and funerals all happen within our walls. No other Jewish organization is there for people at every stage of life.
2. We ensure Jewish survival: Will the Jewish people be here 100 years from now? If we sustain strong synagogues, we will. Nothing better ensures our survival than a strong healthy Solel.
3. We maintain an extraordinary school: Come any Sunday morning to Solel, and you will find the halls filled with students of every age. As Rabbi Arnold Wolf said, “Learning isn’t everything. It is, profoundly, the only thing.”
4. We have an amazing staff: Everyone who works at Solel has dedicated their life to supporting Jewish life. They help us ensure our synagogue operates 365 days a year.
5. We stand for social justice in America: From working in the Waukegan schools to pushing for fair housing to helping young children in Jamaica get glasses, Solelites are intimately involved in our civic community. Our synagogue creates social capital and energizes it with Jewish values to make a difference in our community and our world.
6. We serve young and old, rich and poor, married and single and many more: As Rabbi Harold Kushner put it, “We live in a world that works so hard to separate old from young, rich from poor, successful from less successful…The synagogue is the one place…where those distinctions are not permitted to enter…where everybody is welcome.”
7. We help you grow Jewishly: Jewish tradition opens the door to living a life of meaning and purpose. Through worship, study of Torah and community-building, we grow into the people we are meant to be.
8. We continue to be creative pathfinders: Solel is not a staid institution. We are vibrant, adapting to the realities of modern Jewish life, welcoming interfaith families and all those who seek a spiritual home within our walls.
9. We are here for Israel and the Jewish people: The Talmud tells us that “all Jews are responsible for one another.” We live that with our programs and learning at Solel.
10. We are your spiritual home: In the Misheberach prayer—a traditional Jewish prayer for healing—we ask God to “make our lives a blessing.” Solel exists to help each of us make our lives a blessing. When we support our synagogue, we create blessings for ourselves, our families, our communities and one another.
With Gratitude,
Rabbi Evan Moffic
Top 10 Reasons PDF (Printable Version)