synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Congregation Beit Harambam
Beit Harambam United in
Times of Adversity
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
C ongregation Beit Harambam
has never had any trou-
ble gathering a minyan for
prayers three times a day.

Whenever congregant Moshe Asiag
has attended shul — six days a week,
three times a day — he’s been joined
by 30-40 other men, far exceeding the
minimum 10 needed to pray.

Congregants’ loyalty to Beit Harambam
and each other is unwavering.

When an arson burned down the
Verree Road synagogue in 2000, upon
finding their building destroyed early
Saturday morning, Beit Harambam
members opted to daven outside,
completing their Shabbat service after
rescuing their sefer Torah and prayer
books. Beit Harambam president Yaacov
Avraham insists that there is nothing
unique about his synagogue commu-
nity, but the demographics tell a dif-
ferent story.

One of few area Sephardic syna-
gogues, Beit Harambam is primarily
home to Israeli expatriates. While
Hebrew is often heard in American
synagogues during prayer, it’s not often
the common tongue during post-Shab-
bat schmoozing. At Beit Harambam,
it’s the norm.

“It’s like a big Israeli family,” Rabbi
Moshe Arbiv said.

Founded in 1978 by Moroccan-born
Rabbi Amiram Gabay — now retired
— Beit Harambam was originally a
meeting space in Gabay’s basement
in his Rhawnhurst home. The space
was home to Sephardic and Mizrahi
Orthodox Jews from Morocco, Iraq
and Libya, as well as its large Israeli
population. In the next decade, the synagogue
expanded and moved to its humble
space on Verree Road, a converted
house that blends in with the residen-
tial area there. The community multi-
plied to 300 before the May 2000 fire.

Though police investigations were
never conclusive about the motives
28 MAY 5, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Moshe Asiag (left) at an outdoor Beit
Harambam event
behind the fire, synagogue leadership
was certain that the action was a hate
crime. “This is pure antisemitism,” Avraham
said. Avraham, who has been synagogue
president for the past 20 years and
replaced the founding rabbi’s son Eli
Gabay, was one of the congregants who
arrived at the synagogue shortly after
authorities put out the fire.

“We stood outside. We were just in
shock,” Avraham said.

Firefighters were able to rescue the
synagogue’s Torahs and salvage some
prayer books, but other texts and more
than 50 tallitot were destroyed.

Asiag, who’s been a Beit Harambam
member for seven years, sometimes
uses a prayer book with burn marks or
singed edges.

Though the fire remains a dark spot in
the synagogue’s history, it provided a way
for the synagogue to expand to accom-
modate its ballooning membership.

With funding help from the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia,
Jewish Community Relations Council,
Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia
and American Jewish Congress, Beit
Harambam was able to rebuild its orig-
inal space, as well as create an expan-
sion with a larger prayer space and
social hall. The project was completed
in 2011.

An increasing number of young members has made Beit Harambam text study
classes an opportunity to build friendships.

Beit Harambam now offers Torah
study classes for men, Tehillim study
groups for women and an informal
gemach — loan-free social service to
members who may need financial help
— as well as raucous holiday parties,
according to Asiag. Before COVID, the
shul held monthly food drives.

Though many of the congregants
range from ages 45-60, Asiag said, there
are plenty of younger men attending
minyans and text study groups as well.

Asiag, 25, has two Israeli parents and
speaks fluent Hebrew. He has a wife
and three young children, two of whom
began attending shul with him.

Many members, like Asiag, have
young families and work similar jobs.

Going to shul, where there are 90
attendees for Shabbat services and 200-
300 attendees for holidays, sometimes
provides the only social encounters
outside of family that young members
have during the week.

“If you have a synagogue that’s all
different kinds of people, you just don’t
intervene with everybody,” Asiag said.

“But here, we’re all Israeli; we’re all the
same. If you’re all on the same page,
everybody gets along together.”
While close camaraderie among
those with similar backgrounds is an
asset of Beit Harambam for its con-
gregants, its handful of Ashkenazi and
Russian members prove that it’s a space
that can be a spiritual home for anyone.

“Everybody’s welcome to pray with
us. We don’t judge people if they’re
religious or not. It’s an open synagogue
for everybody,” Avraham said. “We
just hope that we will grow more and
more. ... The more people we have,
that’s going to be a blessing for the
synagogue.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com



d’var torah
A Good Rebuke
Brings Peace
BY RABBI GREGORY MARX
Parshat Kedoshim
W ithout a doubt, Kedoshim,
our Torah portion for this
Shabbat, is so full of wis-
dom and faith. It reminds us that we can
be more than we already are.

So many self-help gurus remind us
that we are holy, that everything we do
can be lift ed up and celebrated. Th is
Torah portion, on the other hand, comes
to teach us that we can be holy. “You shall
be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”
Holiness, in other words, is a goal, not a
natural state of being.

In that path to being holy, we fi nd a
choice gem: Leviticus 19:17, “Reprove
your neighbor, but incur no guilt
because of him.”
greatest opportunity for growth.

According to our tradition, there are
numerous don’ts to being this gentle critic
which we can apply to our friendship:
Don’t confront the other person pub-
licly. A public confrontation tends to cause
the other to defend their actions and to
become locked into a public posture.

Don’t talk to the other person when
you are angry. Anger begets anger and
results in heat and not light.

Don’t use harsh words or personal ref-
erences which would hurt or embarrass
the other person.

Don’t argue against the person; argue
against the behavior. Ad hominem argu-
ments not only hurt, they lengthen the
debate and make people more intransigent.

Don’t criticize another before looking
within and seeing if we possess the same
character fl aw we seek to criticize in others.

taken. Do remember that constant nega-
tivity will soon be ignored by the listener.

Holiness does not come easily or
cheaply. It means doing the hard stuff and
sometimes that means gently and kindly
opening our mouths and trying to correct
a friend. Even the rabbis had a hard time
with it. Th ey were very candid about the
diffi culty of off ering a reproach.

According to the Talmud, Rabbi Tarfon
said, “I wonder if there is anyone in this
generation who accepts rebuke, for if one
says to him (Tarfon) Remove the mote
(small substance/piece of material) from
between your eyes, he would answer:
Remove the beam from between your eyes!
Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said: I wonder
if there is one in this generation who
knows how to reprove! Rabbi Yochanan
said, I call heaven and earth as my witness
that because of me Akiva was punished,
because I used to complain about him
before Rabban Gamliel, and all the more
so Akiva showered me with love.”
I end with a related quote from
Proverbs 9:8: “Reprove not a scorner, lest
you be hated. Reprove a wise person, and
you will be loved for it.” JE
Rabbi Gregory S. Marx is the senior
rabbi at Congregation Beth Or in Maple
Glen. Th e Board of Rabbis of Greater
Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse
perspectives on Torah commentary for the
Jewish Exponent. Th e opinions expressed
in this column are the author’s own and do
not refl ect the view of the Board of Rabbis.

A true friend, neighbor is one who
feels an obligation to be helpful,
not only in good times, but when
things go astray.

A true friend, neighbor is one who feels
an obligation to be helpful, not only in
good times, but when things go astray,
when your neighbor gets into trouble or
brings suff ering to others. In the mid-
rash Bereshit Rabbah, we learn that true
love means having the courage to say
what is needed. Rabbi Yosi ben Chanina
said, “Love without reproof is no love.”
Elsewhere we learn from Resh Lakish,
“Reproof leads to peace; a peace where
there has been no reproof is no peace.”
We are to act the part of the friendly
critic, helping our friend to look at him/
herself, and see themselves through the
eyes of others, so that our friend can cor-
rect their own shortcomings and live up
to their fullest potentials. A true friend
does not fl atter, but is a gentle and friendly
critic. Obsequious fl attery is cheap and
safe. Criticism is risky, but it provides the
Famously we learn from the Baal Shem
Tov that if we see another person doing
something ugly, we are to meditate on the
presence of that same ugliness in ourselves.

Maybe, the sight of a sin before our eyes
came in order to remind us of that fault
within, so as to bring us back in repentance.

Don’t off er even the most loving criti-
cism until you are ready to hear it.

Here are a few Jewish dos:
Be sure of your own motives, that you
are doing it for the sake of the person or
the cause which you believe in, and not
to relieve your feelings or to unload your
anger. Th en speak as calmly, as soft ly
and as lovingly as possible. Th en focus
on the deed not the doer. Point out what
was wrong with the act or idea, but don’t
impugn the character of the actor.

Respect the person, even while you crit-
icize the deed. Encourage positive steps
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 29