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The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah plans to rededicate its renovated building at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 27, on Shabbat Chanukah, coinciding with the congregation’s annual 180 Menorah Celebration. Musician Noah Aronson will join B’nai Jehudah’s tefillah team for this special service. When B’nai Jehudah opened its building at 124th and Nall Avenue in Overland Park 20 years ago, it was designed as a school and called the Learning Center.

Remember the telephone game? Here’s a refresher: First, a group of people form a line. One person whispers something into another’s ear.

Then that person whispers it into a third person’s ear. And so on. The last person gets the whispered message and then says it aloud to the group. Everyone hears — and oftentimes laughs — at how the message changed from the original. This process of hearing things and then changing what was heard has special significance for composer Yotam Haber.

Local Jewish author Jonathan A. Fink has an ambitious goal: to write a series of 10 books in 10 years, all of them about spirituality.

Fink has published two of those books and written the third, which is in the editing phase. His second book, “The Baseball Gods are Real Vol. 2: The Road to the Show” (Polo Grounds Publishing LLC, 2019), follows “The Baseball Gods are Real: A True Story about Baseball and Spirituality,” published in 2018. In the second volume, Fink continues recounting his travels along his spiritual path, starting with his midlife crisis and his new, daily practice of yoga, meditation and a vegan diet, which “helped me to find a new, better direction in my life”; introduces readers to baseball devotee Joe Perrin, his friend and colleague at Satya Investment Management LLC, which Fink founded; and tells stories of various baseball personalities and events.

The phrase “the show” commonly refers to the major leagues. Fink refers to the road to the show “as a metaphor for the road of life,” he writes in the book. “We are all on the road to ‘The Show,’ symbolic for achieving our goals in life, whatever they may be.” In an interview with The Chronicle, Fink said: “If we do our jobs right in life, we keep extending the goalposts” along to path toward personal goals. “The show is both the goal and the process of getting there,” he said. Fink is Jewish and a member of Kehilath Israel Synagogue. He became a Bar Mitzvah in his hometown of Merrick, New York.

He was raised in a Reform Jewish family that attended synagogue twice a year, but he was an atheist until age 40 — “first a cynical and sarcastic atheist and then angry, because I saw hypocrisy among religious leaders and their devoted followers.” “Just because organized religion has disappointed us doesn’t mean you can’t have a relationship with God and the Holy Spirit,” he said. “The Trinity in Catholicism is quite similar to spirituality in other religions. Karma (is comparable with) musar in Judaism, the energies of the world balancing out, repeating themes until you can grow.”

His appreciation for Judaism and for family are “very strong,” he said. “I take great pride in being a Jew, and I care very much about the plight of the Jewish people,” Fink said. “I consider myself a Jew but I’m not religious. The difference between religion and spirituality is that religion is based on dogma; spirituality is based on experience. I absolutely believe in God.”

Fink incorporates multiple beliefs and traditions in his approach to spirituality. He believes in reincarnation. Judaism informs the ideas in his books mainly through the Ten Commandments, as does Christianity. “If everyone lived like Jesus — the Golden Rule — this is what the Ten Commandments embody,” he said. His relationship with Judaism has evolved along his spiritual journey, and he has “a lot more respect for Judaism through this process.”

Fink has sold several hundred copies of his first book. He has written a third book, “The Music Gods are Real Vol. 1: The Road to the Show,” and it’s in the editing phase. He also has chosen titles for his planned fourth book, “The Baseball Gods are Real Vol. 3: The Religion of Baseball,” and fifth book, “The Music Gods are Real Vol. 2: The Religion of Music.” Fink’s ‘The Baseball Gods are Real Vol. 2’ continues baseball as metaphor for life, spirituality Fink is 45. He and his wife, Regina, and their 16-year-old daughter, Kayla, and 13-year-old son, Nate, live in Leawood.

They have lived in the Kansas City area since 2012. Fink received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tulane University and a master’s in business administration from the Bloch School of Business at the University of MissouriKansas City. The one thought he wants readers of The Chronicle to take with them is: “Your thoughts manifest in your physical reality, so be optimistic.”

The name he chose for his investment management company — Satya — means “truth” in Sanskrit. “The show” for Fink is inseparable from his search for truth. He uses baseball as a vehicle for that search because “baseball chose me.” “It has inextricably weaved through my life since I was a kid,” he said. “It just seemed like baseball kept popping up. As goes baseball goes America.” 

The Rules of The Baseball Gods:

1. No ball playing in the house.

2. No talking about a no-hitter during a no-hitter.

3. Never try to hit a home run. If you try, you will ground out, pop out, or worse, strike out.

4. Never give up, never give in.

5. Respect your umpires, coaches, teammates, the other team, your parents, your siblings, the game of baseball, and most importantly, yourself.

6. No negative thinking. If you think you will make an error, you probably will.

7. No sore losers. Learning how to win is not as important as learning how to lose.

8. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

9. No excuses. Take credit for a good play but also responsibility for a bad play.

10. Play to have fun and for the love of the game.

—Excerpted from “The Baseball

Gods are Real Vol. 2: The Road to the Show,” by Jonathan A. Fink (Polo

Grounds Publishing LLC, 2019)