Dear Chevreh,
I share these words with you in response to something disturbing that has taken place in our sanctuary twice over the last month.
In both cases, a child in the sanctuary made child-like sounds, and in both cases, someone asked the child's parents to take the child out of the sanctuary. In one case, the person said to the parent, "perhaps your child doesn't belong in shul." Besides my sense of (and agreement with) the parents' hurt, these words are also the least "Netivot-Shalom-ish" I've ever heard. This sentiment has no place in our community, and my response is one of outrage that they were said in the first place.
Our community's responses to these wrong reactions to the presence of children in our holy space is simple and core to who we are as a community: Our sanctuary is not a sanctuary from children. It is a sanctuary for children.
Parents are the only ones responsible for their children in our shul, in the sanctuary and in general. We expect them to use good judgment, knowing that children have a hard time being quiet and that there are some quiet moments of solemnity. So while we ask parents to be responsible for exercising wisdom, we ask that only parents make that decision.
If you feel the urge to react to the sound a child makes in our sanctuary, please know that you are welcome to walk out until that feeling subsides. Our children are cherished parts of our spiritual life, not distractions from it. Just this morning in our sanctuary, I wept at the cries of a new baby, held in his grandfather's arms. Those cries (and the ruckus I pray he causes in that same space in years to come) spell out a glorious, vital future for our community and for our People.
After all, we are only older versions of the children we see. We cry. Why shouldn't they? They play. Shouldn't we as well? Those children will, one day, please God, take our places as leaders of the Jewish People. That is, they will be the next generation of Jewish leaders unless we inform them that their whole selves aren't welcome in our sacred spaces.
Jewish tradition teaches us that the Gates of Heaven are only open because of the cries of children. How can our prayers be acceptable if we exclude our most pure sound?
And so, I close with the simplest way I can state this, and invite you to remind each other if the need arises: Our sanctuary is not a sanctuary from children. It is a sanctuary we've built for our children, and their children after them.
With Love,
Rabbi Creditor
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