 |
| Rabbi Jared Saks, 33, stands by the reflecting pool at Congregation Bet Ha’am, located on Westbrook Street in South Portland. Bet Ha’am the only Reform Jewish house of worship in the Portland area, which he joined in July. |
SOUTH PORTLAND — Somewhere in the many dimensions of the multiverse, there
exists an Earth were Jared Saks is a brilliant young member of the scientific
set who, with his warm ways and winning smile, both awes and inspires the public
as he works to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos.
But not on our planet.
To be certain, our Jared Saks has that same charm, that
same quick wit. But, in the universe we call home, Jared Saks failed Physics II
in his senior year of high school. And so, says Saks, ended his dream of
becoming a world-famous physicist. Instead, Saks turned from studying the
immutable laws of nature to the very mutable, maybe even chaotic, world of the
human spirit.
Now, Saks, 33, the new spiritual leader at Congregation
Bet Ha’am in South Portland, is preparing to lead his first High Holiday
services in the congregation. And, as part of Bet Ha’am’s mission to stand for
downtrodden minorities – those who are the modern equivalent the Jews being
“strangers to Pharaoh” – Saks expects to take a leading role in next year’s gay
marriage debate, as the issue winds its way toward a November 2012 referendum
vote.
That cause, however, is independent of Saks being gay
himself, he said, and must take a back seat to his immediate goal
– getting to know his flock.
“There is a lot of drive within the congregation to be a
part of that movement and it’s definitely high on my priority list,” said Saks,
“but other things have to take precedent right now. A lot of my work right now
is focused meeting people in my congregation.”
Climbing Jared’s
ladder
Although it may seem a sharp turn from science geek to
theology major, Saks, it seems, was the only one surprised by the transition.
“I applied to colleges thinking I was going to major in
physics,” he said in his office on Friday, during a break in sermon writing for
the Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins at sundown on Sept. 28, and
Yom Kippur , which begins at sundown Oct. 7. “But then, after failing Physics
II, I went to college not really knowing what I wanted to do. It wasn’t until I
took a couple of religion classes that things started to fall into place and I
realized that I was interested in becoming a rabbi and reached out to the
seminary.
“When I’ve told that narrative to high school classmates,
though,” said Saks, “a lot of them have said, ‘Really? Because even when you
were in 10th grade we knew that you were going to become a rabbi.’
I think that’s just from how I was engaged in my Jewish
life at that point, it was evident how important it was to me, even before I
knew it. But, for me, that was just life. I didn’t think of myself as focused
on Judaism, it was just the way I was living.”
Saks grew up in Long Valley, N.J., the oldest of two
boys, with a pair of public school teachers for parents. The family was part of
a decided minority – the Saks brothers two of “maybe a dozen” Jews in a high
school of 1,200 students.
Still, the family attended Sabbath services regularly and
Saks joined his temple’s religious-school program. That experience, he said,
steeled him for what was to come.
“I think all of us have something in our lives where we
were the outcast, where we were not the majority,” said Saks. “For me growing
up, being Jewish was the piece that made me different. How I grappled with
that, and how I found a place for myself and learned to accept myself as a
Jewish person in a majority Christian community, was the tool that helped me to
be successful in terms of coming out and being gay.”
It also where Saks turned as a lonely college freshman,
when he dropped in on Hillel, the Jewish community centers on college campuses.
“It was sort of the first place I went,” said Saks,
“because, on a campus of 30,000, I didn’t know anyone except for one family
friend who was graduating that year. So, to reach out to people, I went to a
place I knew was going to feel comfortable.”
After graduating from Florida State University, Saks
attended rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion
in New York. He was ordained in 2005 and, in the double-blind placement process
used by the seminary, began his career at Temple Israel in Minneapolis,
Minn.
While
climbing the ladder from assistant rabbi to associate, Saks created and led
youth educational programs, including a “major engagement” of youth group teens
to raise awareness of homelessness in the Twin Cities, and to raise money to
end it.
That
work, he said, is part of the Reconstructionism movement – one of four branches in modern
Judaism, the other’s being Orthodox, Conservative and Revisionist. Reformists
sprang up in Germany during the Enlightenment when groups of Jews, long
self-segregated from society, elected to become a part of the larger
world.
To do that, however, Reform Jews realized they needed to
assimilate to a certain degree – to mold Judaism into something new, without
sacrificing their core Jewish identity. Of course, said Saks, Judaism has been
in flux since A.D. 70, with the destruction of the Second Temple, which
effectively ended the era of animal sacrifice.
“If Judaism wasn’t willing to change, there wouldn’t be
Judaism any more,” said Saks. “So, there’s always been reform.”
But the more recent reform meant finding a balance
between science and religion, and a shift in focus to the moral and ethical
commandments. Some Jewish doctrines in diet and dress, which fell out of
fashion at the founding of the Reform movement, have recently come back in
vogue. That, said Saks, is part of Reform’s allowance of personal autonomy in
deciding what is and is not spiritually meaningful to each person.
“Its’ about constant, ongoing change and adapting Jewish
tradition and ritual to fit with the times in which we are living and the
secular knowledge which we acquire,” he said.
What has not changed, however, is the Reform movement’s
drive to enact social justice through the Jewish act called tikkun olam, or
“repairing the world.”
In
ancient times, Jews were called upon to look beyond themselves to care for “the
widow, the orphan and the stranger” in deference to the time when they, too,
were “strangers to pharaoh.”
“Our
memory of having been the downtrodden requires us to make sure other people
don’t have that experience,” said Saks. “What we have to do in a modern context
is understand that the widow, the orphan and the stranger were simply the most
vulnerable members of the Bible’s society. We have to ask today, who are the
people on the fringe? Who are the most vulnerable?
“Part of our sacred obligation through our relationship
with God is to care for those people who are at risk,” he said.
That drive to look beyond those who are “immediately
relevant to us” is particularly strong at Bet Ha’am, where a sticker on the
front door proclaims, “All are welcome.”
That includes immigrants, interfaith families and those who, like Saks
and his partner, are part of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
community.
Coming
to Maine
Despite his success leading youth groups and fighting
poverty in Minnesota, Saks said when he felt the time was right to find his own
flock, he wanted to shepherd souls in a much smaller corner of God’s Earth.
“Part of my search was that I wanted to find a community
where I could really get to know people well, and build strong relationships,”
he said.
That was certainly the case in South Portland, where, at
350 families, Bet Ha’am (or “House of the People”) – the only Reform
Jewish temple in the greater Portland area – is about one-fifth the size of
Saks’ previous temple.
Also factoring into the choice was a commitment to
raising a family. Saks and his partner, University of Southern Maine student
Kirk Boettcher, had to refuse offers from any state that would not allow a
same-sex couple to adopt children.
“My partner and I have been together for a couple of
years and are considering children in the near future,” said Saks. “So, he and
I needed to be in a state where that was possible.”
However, while that kept Saks out of some states, what
really drove the search, he said, was some sense of a shared vision.
“I sent out my resume to many congregations with the goal
of finding a community that fit in with the goals I have for Judaism,” said
Saks, who began his duties in July. “Bet Ha’am and I seemed a really good match
in that regard. What I found was that the congregation here really values and
has a sense of ownership of the community. It’s a place where people are
motivated to care for the community and one another, where they really see
themselves as linked to one another and responsible for one another. Those
values of being inclusive and making room for everyone around the table were
really important to me.”
Bet Ha’am did its share to assure a good fit, as well,
vetting more than 30 rabbis for their new educational leader.
“So many qualities of Rabbi Saks stood out among these
applications,” said Elaine Falender, who led a search committee. “He has an
open-minded, welcoming approach to Jewish engagement that reaches people of all
ages. He’s a natural teacher, bringing Judaism and Jewish texts alive. And he’s
great at connecting people with opportunities for social action.”
Although he’s led services since July, Saks’ formal installation will take
place the weekend of Nov. 18-20, with retired Rabbi Joel Soffin of New Jersey,
a well-known social activist, presiding.
A place
for all
Some of the social action Bet Ha’am expects Saks to lead
will begin next year, but actually predates his arrival in Maine. As a Reform
congregation, Bet Ha’am has supported previous attempts to extend marriage
rights to gay and lesbian couples, and opposed the 2009 referendum vote that
took that overturned the law that would have awarded that right.
“There are already efforts within our social action
committee to be part of the work leading up to the 2012 election to try and
secure marriage equality in Maine for all of its citizens,” said Saks.
Although passages of the Torah, particularly Leviticus,
appear to condemn homosexuality, Saks points to the modern Reform reading of
those texts.
“Today, we see Leviticus as really being about idolatry
and using force to embarrass or humiliate somebody else, and doing things that
people who don’t do when they have a relationship with God,” said Saks.
“The Bible doesn’t know of a committed, loving
relationship between two people of the same sex,” said Saks. “It doesn’t know
that’s possible. But, since we know that’s possible now – because science has
learned that sexuality is something that people are born with that we don’t
have a choice about – Reform Judaism says we have to read that text in a way
that fits with a modern understanding.”
It is perhaps not so surprising then that Saks would seek
to marry science and scripture to make a point. Whether exploring the alternate
dimensions physicists now believe exist in outer space, or plunging the many
dimensions that exist within each of us, the goal is the same – understanding.
And, in that sense, he has not strayed so far form his
boyhood dream at all.
“Everything is rooted in that notion that we are all
created in God’s image,” he said, “and that the way we treat one another is a
reflection of the relationship we have with God.”
No comments:
Post a Comment