As your rabbi, I promise to work with you. I promise to be your partner in changing the world. Whether the world is the internal world of the soul and of personal healing. Or if it is the world of our daily interactions. Or if it is the world of the systems and structures that undergird our society. I promise that I will be here to work. And I pray that you will come to work with me.
Isn’t that what the synagogue is for? Isn’t that why we are here? The rabbinate I hope to build is rooted in the relationships that we will form. And through our relationships with each other and with the immortal words of our tradition and with the incredible power that comes from study, prayer, and community, that we will set about making a world worthy of our highest ideals.
I’m so glad you all got to meet Rabbi Billy. This is a remarkable guy. Let me tell you something about him. I spent three years as the intern at Woodlands Community Temple. If you were to look at the budget sheets or the workload or the size of the community, you would realize that Woodlands does not need an intern. But, Billy has built a community that, because of who they are, needs an intern. They need to invest and dedicate time, money, and energy to be teachers and mentors. It’s a community of compassion and wisdom and creativity. Without an intern, services would go on, all of the classes would run, the young people would find enrichment…but something would be missing, because they weren’t sharing and teaching their Torah. Billy, I will continue to say this throughout my career. Thank you. I am so lucky to have learned from you, Rabbi Mara, Cantor Jonathan, and the wonderful people who fill up 50 Worthington Road.
Wooldands truly is makom sh’libi oheiv, a place that my heart holds dear. Makom, plainly translated, means place, a physical location. And, our tradition also uses Makom as a word for God. As if to say that the spirit that suffuses the place is just as important as the bricks and mortar. God is Makom, the spirit that fills up the universe, the place we live.
Let’s think back to that beautiful anthem we just heard: Makom shlibi oheiv, the Makom that my heart holds dear, sham raglai molikhot oti. My feet will surely lead me there.
As if without any cognitive process, it’s pure intuition, it’s pure spirit, my feet just lead me to the Makom. My feet bring me to places of compassion, of thoughtfulness, of creative, of innovation, of meaning, and of purpose. And now I’m here. In this new physical space. But with the same makom, filled with the same spirit. And I’m here to be your rabbi.
I’ll be honest with you. For a long time I didn’t want to be a rabbi. Not because I didn’t want to be a rabbi, but because I knew so many impressive, warm, and wise rabbis. How could I be a rabbi? And yet…here I am. I stand here as a rabbi knowing that I am a product of and, God-willing, an amalgamation of the best parts of my many rabbis.
The wisdom and concern for social conscience of Rabbi Alan Katz
The warmth and creativity of Rabbi Lisa Izes
The joy and sincerity of ritual from Rabbi Allan Lehmann
The ability to build bridges within Jewish communities of Rabbi Elyse Winnick
The moral clarity of Rabbi David Saperstein
The accessibility and relational mindset of Rabbi Jonathan Roos
The unencumbered kindness and innovation of Rabbi Aaron Miller
The enthusiasm and joy of Rabbi Yaron Kapitulnik
The camaraderie, friendship, and commitment to justice of Rabbis Seth Limmer, Shoshanah Conover, Neil Hirsch, Adam Miller, Joel Simonds, and the rest of the rabbis of the Commission on Social Action
The commitment to mentorship, partnership, and Torah of Rabbi Billy Dreskin
The friendship and love of Jewish learning of Rabbi Mara Young
And, I had the privilege of growing with and learning from an incredible cadre of rabbis while in rabbinical school:
Rabbi Sarah DePaolo
Rabbi Josh Fixler
Rabbi Chase Foster
Rabbi Scott Gellman
Rabbi Lisa Grant
Rabbi Rachel Heaps
Rabbi Gidon Isaacs
Rabbi Emily Langowitz
Rabbi Danny Moss
Rabbi Lisa Vinikoor
I should say, I take time to name these rabbis as a matter of theological principle. I believe, to the core of my being, that we increase holiness when we explicitly name and express gratitude for the goodness we see in this world. If not for these rabbis, and many others I do not have time to enumerate now (but would be happy to enumerate later!), I would not be standing here today.
And what a remarkable place to be standing. On the bimah of Congregation B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim. In my few months, I have experienced what I know to be just a sliver of the grace and wisdom of Rabbi Mark Shapiro. Thank you, Rabbi Shapiro, for your tireless efforts to build this congregation into what it can be today.
And to be a rabbi alongside Rabbi Karyn Kedar is a blessing that I can barely begin to describe. To witness the vision, sincerity, and soul-piercing wisdom of Rabbi Kedar is…it’s just stunning.
Can I tell you the moment I knew I would come here? Over drinks at a college bar next to HUC-JIR’s campus in Los Angeles, Rabbi Kedar said this to me, and in that moment, I just knew. She told me that our job is what we get paid for, but our work? Our work comes from God.
I have always known my work. I learned it from my parents who took me to pro-choice rallies and to serve in the soup kitchen and who took me to the synagogue and told me that these actions go hand in hand. I have always known that my work is to change the world. To build the world that we all dream about on our most optimistic days.
As your rabbi, I promise to work with you. I promise to be your partner in changing the world. Whether the world is the internal world of the soul and of personal healing. Or if it is the world of our daily interactions. Or if it is the world of the systems and structures that undergird our society. I promise that I will be here to work. And I pray that you will come to work with me.
Isn’t that what the synagogue is for? Isn’t that why we are here? The rabbinate I hope to build is rooted in the relationships that we will form. And through our relationships with each other and with the immortal words of our tradition and with the incredible power that comes from study, prayer, and community, that we will set about making a world worthy of our highest ideals.
These past few months have been exhilarating. I am immensely grateful for the way you have welcomed Gavi and me into your community. Thank you. I am so glad to be here. And I am ready for us to get to work.
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