synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Congregations of Shaare Shamayim
Congregations of Shaare Shamayim
Welcomes New Rabbi Sandra Berliner
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
I n the history section on its web-
site, the Congregations of Shaare
Shamayim describe its community
as “a place that accepts all comers.” And
it’s hard to argue with that description.

Th e synagogue, located on Verree
Road in Northeast Philadelphia, is
actually 15 synagogues combined into
one. In 1966, the Greater Northeast
Jewish Congregation merged with
Congregation Shaare Shamayim of
South Philadelphia. Th en, in 1989,
it did the same with Congregation
Beth Judah. Finally, throughout the
1990s, 2000s and 2010s, many more
synagogues joined the community in
Northeast Philly.

Aft er completing the process in 2017,
temple leaders chose the updated name
“to be assured of never forgetting our
long history,” reads the history section.

Today that history, as well as the 400
families who keep it alive, are in the
hands of a new rabbi: Sandra Berliner,
a 67-year-old resident of Cheltenham
Township. The Congregations of Shaare
Shamayim welcomed Berliner to
its community on Aug. 15. But she
really started almost a year earlier.

Last fall, following the retirement of
Rabbi Reuben Israel Abraham, Berliner
stepped in to lead the congregation.

And then she just stayed ... until temple
leaders formalized the arrangement.

“Th ere was a wonderful chemistry
as she walked through and spoke to
people and got to know people,” syna-
gogue President Fran Gabriel said. “She
listened.” Berliner said she “clicked” with the
community when she started fi lling in
last fall.

“Everybody is warm and welcoming,
and I’m a warm and welcoming per-
son,” she added.

Th e rabbi prides herself on accessi-
bility, and it’s her goal to build relation-
ships, she says. If you have a spiritual
need, you can call her. Th e rabbi looks
at people “from where they are com-
26 Congregations of Shaare Shamayim in
Northeast Philadelphia
Courtesy of Congregations of Shaare Shamayim
ing from” without “any pre-conceived
ideas.” It’s an approach she developed
over the past 18 years as the rabbi
for Federation Housing, the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s
nonprofi t that helps people fi nd places
to live. In that role, Berliner visited
the organization’s many diff erent hous-
ing complexes. She hosted discussion
programs, holiday celebrations, private
counseling sessions and memorial ser-
vices. Berliner was meeting with people
from diff erent backgrounds and of
varying degrees of faith and practice.

It was her responsibility to be the rabbi
for all of them.

“I’m proud of the way the commu-
nity came together to study with me,
discuss with me, ask me for private
counseling,” she said. “I love being able
to teach. I like to think that I inspire
a sense of connection to our Jewish
traditions.” The Congregations of Shaare
Shamayim are similar. Th ere are dif-
ferent types of Jews within the larger
community. Specifi cally, one group in the com-
munity prefers a traditional service.

Th is means that Berliner, as a woman,
cannot lead it from the bimah. But the
other big group in the synagogue is an
egalitarian one, and the new rabbi is
very much allowed to lead its service
SEPTEMBER 1, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
from the bimah.

Yet aft er their respective services on
Shabbat, both groups get together for
a Kiddush. Th ey have joint events fre-
quently, and Berliner plans on engag-
ing everyone in classes together.

She wants to connect the groups in
synagogue life as oft en as possible. She
also believes that she can. Even though
Berliner will not lead the traditional
members in High Holiday prayers later
this month, she sees herself as “the
rabbi for the entire congregation,” she
said. “I see my role there as being a uni-
fi er,” the rabbi added. “I would like to
see both groups study together, engage
in social action projects together, cele-
brations.” Berliner is the fi rst female rabbi in
the community’s history, according to
Gabriel. Th e president called hiring a
woman “a big step for us.” She also said
that Berliner connected well with the
whole community when she started in
2021, and that traditional congregants
will do counseling with her.

Th e community’s spiritual leader
only conducting one of its services is
not even diff erent from what the con-
gregations did before. A year ago on
the High Holidays, Abraham led the
traditional service and temple lead-
ers brought in another rabbi to lead
the egalitarian service. Recently on
the Sabbath, Cantor Don Samuels and
Rabbi Sandra Berliner
Photo by Roy Berliner
some lay leaders have guided the tra-
ditional members in their prayer ses-
sions. Perhaps more than anything, too,
Gabriel believes that Berliner has the
right personality for such a unique role.

She’s warm, open and clear in her com-
munication with members.

“She has a wonderful rapport with
people,” the president said. “Sometimes
people mesh together at the right times.

It’s the right time for us as a congre-
gation that has a large and very warm
and welcoming, egalitarian presence,
as well as a traditional presence.” JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com



d’var torah
Our Religious Imposter
Syndrome BY RABBI DANIEL YOLKUT
I Parshat Shoftim
n establishing the authority of
judges in halakha, the Torah uses
an apparently unnecessary phrase:
“to the judge who shall be in those
days.” (Devarim 17)
Somewhat incredulously, the Talmud
(Rosh Hashana 25b) asks:
“Can it enter your mind that a person
can go to a judge that is not alive in his
days?” The Talmud answers that the Torah
is here empowering the judiciary in
each generation, even if perhaps of
lesser eminence than their predeces-
sors, with the authority and obliga-
tion to fill their leadership role in the
time they find themselves. Earlier, the
Talmud illustrated this principle with
the phrase “Yiftach in his generation
is as Shmuel in his generation,” that
notwithstanding the clear differences
in stature between two Biblical leaders,
both had identical roles to play in their
respective eras.

On the surface, this concept is prin-
cipally directed to the populace, who
could understandably chafe at accept-
ing a lesser light as a judge if they
perceive them as not measuring up to
past luminaries. At the same time, this
can be read as a message to the leaders
themselves. It is certainly easy for a
leader to be painfully aware of their
own shortcomings and of how over-
whelming the abilities of others can be.

While humility is certainly a trait
to be cultivated, when it spirals into a
sense of a paralyzing lack of self-worth,
leaders themselves need to be reminded
that the very fact that God placed them
in that time and place means that they
have a mission to carry out and the
inner abilities to rise to that occasion.

One doesn’t need to be a formal
judge to struggle with “imposter syn-
drome”: a lack of belief in one’s ability
to measure up to others’ perceptions,
the persistent internal sense of being
a fraud. On the surface, we actually
The real challenge is not measuring
ourselves by someone else’s yardstick,
but accepting the role that God expects
from us “in these days.”
give voice to such a self-assessment of
worthlessness every Yom Kippur:
“God, before I was formed, I was
unworthy, and now that I have been
formed it is as if I had not been formed.”
On the surface, this is a devastating
admission of human frailty. However, the
great 20th-century thinker Rav Avraham
Yitzchak haKohen Kook (Siddur Olat
Reiya’h) read this difficult text as a
response and a challenge to our imposter
syndrome. He interprets “before I was
formed, I was unworthy” to mean that
each and every one of us enters the stage
of life at the exact moment when we are
needed. Before we were formed, Rav
Kook taught, there was no need for us.

However, God sends us into His world at
the exact moment when we are worthy —
that our skills and talent and abilities and
even our challenges are uniquely needed
by the universe.

We may not be the great Jews of pre-
vious generations, but we are precisely
the ones needed at this moment. It is
our calling to live up to that potential
once we have been created in the here
and now. Hence, this admission of Yom
Kippur is not an admission of failure,
but is rather a statement of resolve to
appreciate our calling for the future
and not to squander our potential and
mission “as if we had not been formed.”
The real challenge is not measuring
ourselves by someone else’s yardstick,
but accepting the role that God expects
from us “in these days.” JE
Rabbi Daniel Yolkut is the rabbi of
Congregation Poale Zedeck. This col-
umn is a service of the Vaad Harabanim
of Greater Pittsburgh.

Jewish Exponent
PHILADELPHIA Confirm your mailing address for
our weekly edition and online content!
Never miss the
Jewish Exponent!
Complete the form and mail or call 215.832.0700, ext. 1
 Continue my subscription
for the Jewish Exponent.

Address City
Name (Please print)
Signature Date
* Signature and date required to be valid by the US Postal Service. Restrictions apply.

State Zip
Phone Email
Mail to: Mid-Atlantic Media | Philadelphia Jewish Exponent | 9200 Rumsey Rd., Ste. 215 | Columbia, MD 21045
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 27