You Got Rid of What?—Synagogues and Money
A mentor and trusted colleague of mine from rabbinical school gave me one piece of advice before entering the pulpit: don’t change anything in the first year. While I took his message to heart for just about everything, there was one change that had to happen, even if I had only been at my new pulpit for a month. The story went something like this. On the High Holidays, it was the practice of the finance committee to stand at the door, waiting, until our congregants were just greeted and welcomed. And then this happened to anyone who had not yet paid one-third of their dues before the holidays, or those who were in arrears from the past year: The finance committee members would take […]
