Dear Enquirer,
One of the most common questions we receive is simple and understandable: “Do you have a Talmidi congregation in my local area?”
We fully understand why people ask this. Human beings are not meant to live in isolation. Faith is often strengthened through friendship, shared prayer, study, conversation, and the comfort of knowing that others nearby see the world in a similar way. Many people long not only for truth, but for companionship in that truth. This is natural, healthy, and worthy of respect.
At present, however, the Talmidi community is still small and spread across many nations. We are not concentrated enough in most places to establish regular local congregations. For that reason, our ministries currently exist mainly online. This is not our ideal final state. It is simply the present stage of growth we are at.
Some enquirers are disappointed when they learn this, and we fully understand that disappointment. Yet there is an important truth that deserves to be stated plainly: if everyone waits until congregations already exist before becoming involved, congregations will take far longer to appear.
Communities do not emerge by magic. They are built gradually by real people who realise potential, and so stay connected well before everything is fully formed.
Every established religious body once had a beginning. At some stage, every synagogue, church, mosque, temple, or fellowship began with only a handful of people who shared convictions, and chose to remain committed while the visible structure was still small. What later generations inherit as a mature institution, often began as scattered, isolated believers writing letters, gathering in homes, travelling long distances, or maintaining contact across many miles.
That is where we are now.
Please be assured: To remain connected during this stage is not to settle for less. It is to participate in the very process by which something greater comes into existence.
When people who resonate with Talmidi beliefs and values remain in contact, several good things happen. They strengthen one another. They help identify where clusters of members may already exist. They make local gatherings possible when enough people in one region are known to each other. They contribute ideas, skills, encouragement, and friendship. They help younger or newer enquirers realise they are not alone. Most importantly, they shorten the time between scattered individuals and functioning congregations.
By contrast, when people withdraw until a ready-made community appears, growth slows to an agonising crawl for everyone. The same people who desire local congregations unintentionally delay them by remaining absent from the building process.
This is not said as criticism. It is simply the reality of how religious communities form.
Many people today are used to joining ready and finished structures. They look for an existing network, existing buildings, existing clergy, existing programmes, and immediate local fellowship. That instinct is totally understandable. But smaller emerging communities cannot grow that way. They require participants, not spectators. They need builders as well as beneficiaries.
Consider this: If I receive 100 individual enquiries from people in one town or city, and when I tell them we have no physical congregations, they disappear. Those 100 people will never know one another, never meet, and never build what they are all longing to have.
So those who stay connected now, become part of the foundation of what others may later enjoy.
Even while physical congregations are limited, being connected now still offers real benefits. One can learn, ask questions, grow spiritually, join classes, correspond with others, participate in festivals and prayer in the home, deepen understanding, and form friendships across borders. Many people discover that sincere connection and meaningful fellowship are possible long before buildings exist.
There is also another important point. Geography changes. People move. New enquirers appear. Circumstances shift. Two isolated individuals in one city may become five. Five may become enough for regular gatherings. What once seemed impossible can change surprisingly quickly when people remain visible and connected.
But if everyone disappears quietly, no one knows who is nearby, and nothing develops.
Patience in this stage is not passive waiting. It is active preparation.
Those who remain connected are helping create mailing networks, regional awareness, future study circles, future home fellowships, future congregations, and future leadership. They are helping ensure that when the time comes for physical congregations to emerge, there are already relationships, trust, and shared purpose in place.
We therefore warmly encourage enquirers not to measure everything only by what already exists physically in their town or country today. Instead, consider what may exist tomorrow if people of goodwill remain involved now.
If you have found in Talmidaism a religious outlook that speaks to your conscience, honours God, values compassion, and approaches faith honestly, then you are already part of something meaningful. It may still be growing, but growth itself is a noble stage to be part of.
Large communities often offer comfort. Small growing communities offer significance and meaning while we get there.
The congregations many people hope for will come sooner through the faithfulness of those willing to stay connected before they arrive.
If this path resonates with you, please do not stand only at the edge waiting for others to build it. Consider staying connected, because if there are sufficient numbers in any given area, we can announce house meetings or even religious services.
If you are interested in staying connected, please consider subscribing at the top right of this page – it’s free, requires no money or commitment, and if one day, there are enough people in your local area one day, you can meet them. If you have trouble subscribing, please email me at: shmuliq.parzal@googlemail.com
If you share our religious beliefs and spiritual outlook, you can always self-identify as a Talmidi. If you are non-Jewish, and are interested in living out Talmidi values in your daily life as a non-Jew, you can do so without converting – you don’t need to become Jewish to be a Talmidi Yahwist. Becoming a Talmidi Jew would require conversion. You will find the essential, defining beliefs of Talmidaism on this web page. You don’t have to belong to any specific sect or denomination. If you might be interested in learning about the Massorite form of Talmidaism, you can read more here.