None of us is whole by ourselves. A spiritual community is one in which we find wholeness, completion with others. What we lack is provided by somebody else. Now I know, this is a positively un-American idea. The John Wayne in us balks at it furiously. We are indoctrinated by our culture to see ourselves as self-sufficient. One of the hardest things I have to do as a rabbi is to convince people who are ill or in trouble to accept help from others. In this culture, needing help from others is seen as a sign of weakness, as something to be ashamed of.
