When I think back on all the wonderful things
More than the social justice work that has made a difference in our lives and saving lives in our larger community – what I cherish most are you…
Begin with: Special thanks for this moment: Elisa Linowes and Rhoda Press and everyone who helped. Your thoughtfulness (love the Centerpieces) and hours of work… appreciated.
Community cannot be without all the Lay Leaders… who agreed with my dreams and were the hands that carried them out… I’d like to mention everyone, but I am afraid I’d leave someone out so… I just thank you and I cherish our sacred work of community together
I’ve been blessed to work with an amazing senior staff and office staff. Bunny, Marge, Sue, Amanda + PMM guys. In my first shul I was the only full time person. In Binghamton, in the last years it was just me and the office manager. I’ve been lucky to work with some amazingly, great people: Binnie, Pam, Amy (ECC)/ Jill, Debbie, Mindy and Linda (RS) / Wendy (Youth)/ (Hazzanim) David and Kim / I've been lucky...
Ah … Judi
I will not repeat what I said last March at your pseudo-retirement celebration
We may have a legal address in Olney, Potomac or the Village but we have shared a second home, Kehilat Shalom for the past 16 years. We don’t just come to work, we treat this physical place as home and everyone who comes inside its circle as extended family with all the mishugas of family. Thank you for being on the same page as me 98% of the time and helping in ways to numerous to count to carry out my vision - and thank you also for the 2% … when seeing all the nuances makes my work better. / And for 6 weeks from now, I again wish you great times with family, grandchildren and especially with Fred in your next stage of the fullness of life.
Tali & Diane…
Thank you all … for all the joy and sacredness of relationship: reflected in some numbers from my spreadsheets.
73 weddings
76 conversions – with 3 to go this month
142 funerals
153 baby namings or brises
461 children bnai mitzvah (not counting the 20 or so adults) with 5 to go
In so many of these moments, I have felt the Presence of God and that Spiritual Power and Love has energized me throughout my term as your rabbi.
Thank you for the honor and joy of serving this wonderful community.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Retirement Party Remarks (part 2)
So: Going back to the Torah: What’s the Promised Land?
Like Moses (I’m not planning on dying though) passing the mantle of leadership to Joshua, I can see the land but I can’t tell you exactly what it is.
I’m not sure… but I believe that you and my successor can go there.
Which leads to my second thought:
Give the new rabbi whoever he or she is a chance to succeed
Whether you’re definitely staying, definitely leaving, or have left a while ago… Please
1) Check out my successor
2) And please: find a way to support this community
I am not this community, only its spiritual leader for 1/3 of its existence and hopefully within a month there will be a new vision and articulation of what our community is striving for
So I was thinking: who could be a Role Model for a last sermon?
Preached a couple of years ago: Mitch Albom’s: Have A Little Faith
Rabbi Al Lewis was one of my homiletics’ teachers at Seminary
pg 210
"He could have used the occasion to reflect on his accomplishemnts. Instead he asked forgiveness. He apologized for notbeing able to save more marriage, for not visitn gthe homebound more, for not easing more pain of parents who hd lost a child, for not having more oney to help families in econoimc ruin. He apologized to teenagers with whom he didn't spend enought time teaching."
My top two: apologies for all the follow up phone calls to sick or grieving / thank you notes that should have been written that just never got mailed. That’s my next to the last thought.
Like Moses (I’m not planning on dying though) passing the mantle of leadership to Joshua, I can see the land but I can’t tell you exactly what it is.
I’m not sure… but I believe that you and my successor can go there.
Which leads to my second thought:
Give the new rabbi whoever he or she is a chance to succeed
Whether you’re definitely staying, definitely leaving, or have left a while ago… Please
1) Check out my successor
2) And please: find a way to support this community
I am not this community, only its spiritual leader for 1/3 of its existence and hopefully within a month there will be a new vision and articulation of what our community is striving for
So I was thinking: who could be a Role Model for a last sermon?
Preached a couple of years ago: Mitch Albom’s: Have A Little Faith
Rabbi Al Lewis was one of my homiletics’ teachers at Seminary
pg 210
"He could have used the occasion to reflect on his accomplishemnts. Instead he asked forgiveness. He apologized for notbeing able to save more marriage, for not visitn gthe homebound more, for not easing more pain of parents who hd lost a child, for not having more oney to help families in econoimc ruin. He apologized to teenagers with whom he didn't spend enought time teaching."
My top two: apologies for all the follow up phone calls to sick or grieving / thank you notes that should have been written that just never got mailed. That’s my next to the last thought.
Retirement Party Remarks (part 1)
MAY 12 REMARKS
Several short thoughts for this bitter…sweet moment
First was triggered by Tuesday’s Op Ed by Eugene Robinson about European Austerity
He tried to make the case: Europe needs to grow… that the solution to it’s problem.
And: We know about Kehilat Shalom’s austerity literally over the last 4 years
Short term, like Europe, we cannot grow our way out of our fundamental fiscal conundrum
We do have a small window of opportunity once we sell our School building to try to rejuvenate
I am not without hope
That hope comes from here (hold up Tanach) and from Jewish history
Communities have faded from the map but Judaism creatively evolves especially in hard times
The 1st Temple was destroyed >2500 years ago and Judaism should have died out like the 10 tribes – but prophets and the first synagogues saved the Jewish pathway to God
When the 2nd Temple was destroyed @1900 yrs ago, the rabbis made Jerusalem portable through study of torah and acts of loving-kindness, which we still live today. We have found creatively radical solutions to challenges that should have erased our legacy.
In the 30s, sociologists predicted the end of Orthodoxy in the US and in the 50s the end of Reform Judaism. Both are still going strong. And for the past 20 years the “experts” have predicted the end of Conservative Judaism and we’re hemorrhaging … but still alive and kicking. Yes… We’re in crisis, but like our ancestors we quest for new solutions to our present day challenges.
It begins here (Tanach) Bereshit…
God creates the world in an act of unconditional love. God is creator. God organizes, God is intentional, God is creative and God evaluates creation. How absolutely radical when compared to the pagan myths of gods! We are not whims of the gods, we are partners in the on-going work of creation – to repair our imperfect world. And in the middle of Genesis through the rest of Exodus and the Torah, the patriarchs and then Moses become God’s hands in the world… organizing, being intentional, and evaluating their creation of sacred community and inspiring a model of ethics and holiness to the whole world. Being created in the image of God means: we do God’s creative process for the well-being of ourselves and our community.
Technologically and sociologically in just the last 10-15 years the world has changed radically. Synagogues in the next decade across the liberal spectrum will be grappling with those changes…
But we’ve evolved before and we can do it again.
To connect with the “emerging adults” we’ve going to have twitter and use the internet and only God knows what else will be the next technology. I know those mediums are fundamentally about sharing information and expanding connections, not about relationship and depth. But the ability to share the wisdom of Judaism / and to build connection / and to connect people questing … is an untapped potential for those willing to invest in the process.
The next decade is going to be hard for shuls. For shuls: Technology,/ economics,/ kinds of affiliation/ and use of facilities/ will all see experimentation and the stress that goes with the risks of transitioning to something new and better
Several short thoughts for this bitter…sweet moment
First was triggered by Tuesday’s Op Ed by Eugene Robinson about European Austerity
He tried to make the case: Europe needs to grow… that the solution to it’s problem.
And: We know about Kehilat Shalom’s austerity literally over the last 4 years
Short term, like Europe, we cannot grow our way out of our fundamental fiscal conundrum
We do have a small window of opportunity once we sell our School building to try to rejuvenate
I am not without hope
That hope comes from here (hold up Tanach) and from Jewish history
Communities have faded from the map but Judaism creatively evolves especially in hard times
The 1st Temple was destroyed >2500 years ago and Judaism should have died out like the 10 tribes – but prophets and the first synagogues saved the Jewish pathway to God
When the 2nd Temple was destroyed @1900 yrs ago, the rabbis made Jerusalem portable through study of torah and acts of loving-kindness, which we still live today. We have found creatively radical solutions to challenges that should have erased our legacy.
In the 30s, sociologists predicted the end of Orthodoxy in the US and in the 50s the end of Reform Judaism. Both are still going strong. And for the past 20 years the “experts” have predicted the end of Conservative Judaism and we’re hemorrhaging … but still alive and kicking. Yes… We’re in crisis, but like our ancestors we quest for new solutions to our present day challenges.
It begins here (Tanach) Bereshit…
God creates the world in an act of unconditional love. God is creator. God organizes, God is intentional, God is creative and God evaluates creation. How absolutely radical when compared to the pagan myths of gods! We are not whims of the gods, we are partners in the on-going work of creation – to repair our imperfect world. And in the middle of Genesis through the rest of Exodus and the Torah, the patriarchs and then Moses become God’s hands in the world… organizing, being intentional, and evaluating their creation of sacred community and inspiring a model of ethics and holiness to the whole world. Being created in the image of God means: we do God’s creative process for the well-being of ourselves and our community.
Technologically and sociologically in just the last 10-15 years the world has changed radically. Synagogues in the next decade across the liberal spectrum will be grappling with those changes…
But we’ve evolved before and we can do it again.
To connect with the “emerging adults” we’ve going to have twitter and use the internet and only God knows what else will be the next technology. I know those mediums are fundamentally about sharing information and expanding connections, not about relationship and depth. But the ability to share the wisdom of Judaism / and to build connection / and to connect people questing … is an untapped potential for those willing to invest in the process.
The next decade is going to be hard for shuls. For shuls: Technology,/ economics,/ kinds of affiliation/ and use of facilities/ will all see experimentation and the stress that goes with the risks of transitioning to something new and better
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Retirement Party
My Retirement Party this past Saturday was lovely. People spoke eloquently. Kids were wonderful with their presentations. My father, sisters, and my immediately family were inspired. For me it was bittersweet.
It's still hard to pick up and move on. I know for my physical and spiritual well-being it's time ... but for half my life I've been a pulpit rabbi and now I'll be teaching or doing chaplaincy. Actually I'm ready for the change.
Left do before June 30 (biggies): three conversions, seven bnai mitzvah total, and four more classes including the siyyum for Bible Study, when we finish Devarim and 10 years of Torah learning.
It's strange to be lame duck with so much still to be done, but I'm ready to ... really follow through on my job search.
It's still hard to pick up and move on. I know for my physical and spiritual well-being it's time ... but for half my life I've been a pulpit rabbi and now I'll be teaching or doing chaplaincy. Actually I'm ready for the change.
Left do before June 30 (biggies): three conversions, seven bnai mitzvah total, and four more classes including the siyyum for Bible Study, when we finish Devarim and 10 years of Torah learning.
It's strange to be lame duck with so much still to be done, but I'm ready to ... really follow through on my job search.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Our Student Rabbis and My Plans
It's a strange time for me. For the second weekend in a row we are interviewing Friday Night, Shabbat morning, and Sunday Morning wonderful rabbinic students to be the next rabbi of Kehilat Shalom. They're all amazing, talented, soon to be ordained rabbis with skill sets for the rabbinate of 21st Century. It's been great emailing, shmoozing, hosting, and trying to help them think through their decision about their professional future. I hope one of them will love Kehilat Shalom as much as I have and become it's next spiritual leader.
As for me, my cover letters and updated resumes are ready to go out. After all my months of networking I'm not as interested in not-for-profit work. Primarily I'm looking to my first love, to be able to teach full time, probably Day School. I'm also exploring part-time CPE Chaplaincy with stipend, in conjunction with part-time teaching. As long as I'm teaching I know I'll be fine. I need CPE (Continuing Pastoral Education) because the one aspect of chaplaincy I have consistently found significant is hospice counseling. At some future time with proper training, I know I would be energized by supporting souls approaching the end of life and their loved ones.
Really looking forward to spending the day with my Dad in NY on Monday.
Shabbat Shalom.
As for me, my cover letters and updated resumes are ready to go out. After all my months of networking I'm not as interested in not-for-profit work. Primarily I'm looking to my first love, to be able to teach full time, probably Day School. I'm also exploring part-time CPE Chaplaincy with stipend, in conjunction with part-time teaching. As long as I'm teaching I know I'll be fine. I need CPE (Continuing Pastoral Education) because the one aspect of chaplaincy I have consistently found significant is hospice counseling. At some future time with proper training, I know I would be energized by supporting souls approaching the end of life and their loved ones.
Really looking forward to spending the day with my Dad in NY on Monday.
Shabbat Shalom.
Friday, February 10, 2012
The Week in Review
Two highlights of this past week
1) Sunday we had a wonderful Tu B'Shevat Seder. The food, the YouTube Videos, the coloring pages, and the music all worked. Kids and adults who were present had time to think about trees and our ecosystem and just have fun.
2) Went to Adas in DC on Wednesday to participate in two conversions (I was not the sponsoring rabbi) On several levels the job of the rabbi is to "make Jews": to work with those who are born Jewish to connect to God and our tradition ... and for those who are "Jews-by-choice" to help them find their pathway to Jewish spirituality. Sitting on the tribunal is always joyful - to hear the stories of the journey between countries, on the roller coast ride of life ... to find deep meaning and joy in spiritual family, community, and tradition - is always moving and significant.
A Busy weekend coming up
Early Childhood Center Shabbat tonight
Reading the 10 Commandments in the Torah tomorrow morning
Fourth Grade Havdalah Service Saturday Night
Adult Bnot Mitzvah Class Sunday morning followed by the brainstorming session for the future of the Religious School
A full weekend of good activity
1) Sunday we had a wonderful Tu B'Shevat Seder. The food, the YouTube Videos, the coloring pages, and the music all worked. Kids and adults who were present had time to think about trees and our ecosystem and just have fun.
2) Went to Adas in DC on Wednesday to participate in two conversions (I was not the sponsoring rabbi) On several levels the job of the rabbi is to "make Jews": to work with those who are born Jewish to connect to God and our tradition ... and for those who are "Jews-by-choice" to help them find their pathway to Jewish spirituality. Sitting on the tribunal is always joyful - to hear the stories of the journey between countries, on the roller coast ride of life ... to find deep meaning and joy in spiritual family, community, and tradition - is always moving and significant.
A Busy weekend coming up
Early Childhood Center Shabbat tonight
Reading the 10 Commandments in the Torah tomorrow morning
Fourth Grade Havdalah Service Saturday Night
Adult Bnot Mitzvah Class Sunday morning followed by the brainstorming session for the future of the Religious School
A full weekend of good activity
Friday, January 20, 2012
Three highlights of the week
It's been a good week. No pastoral emergencies and some interesting experiences.
On Monday, on MLK Day, I helped facilitate AIM's Annual Retreat. We broke into small groups and role played/dramatized the issues AIM is pursuing this Spring/Fall. We hope to insure that the Dream Act Referendum does not overturn the legislation. And we are also doing House Meeting throughout the county on Senior Issues. We hope to have actions for the county to enhance the quality of life for seniors in our area.
Wednesday Morning I drove to Annapolis and on invitation from District 39 State Senator Nancy King invoked the Senate of Maryland. I had done it before about 10 years ago, but it's still cool to be in our historic capital building and set a tone for the day. I spoke briefly about Martin Luther King's inspirational leadership and how great leaders tell great stories and frame challenges which unite us in common quest for meaning and community. Thanks to Ben Goldstein-Smith, from Senator King's Staff (and who I "bar mitzvahed" many years ago) for helping to make the arrangements.
On Tuesday and Wednesday following up our Yom Kippur initiatives to re-energize our community we had orientations for volunteers to serve as Ushers/Greeters. It is important to have a caring and warm face for everyone who enters our spiritual home to worship. Thanks to those who attended the workshop and a special thanks to Howard Glassman for reorganizing the greeter/usher guidelines and leading the sessions.
This Shabbat ... Sisterhood Shabbat. Sisterhood's doing almost everything... it's almost a Shabbat off!
On Monday, on MLK Day, I helped facilitate AIM's Annual Retreat. We broke into small groups and role played/dramatized the issues AIM is pursuing this Spring/Fall. We hope to insure that the Dream Act Referendum does not overturn the legislation. And we are also doing House Meeting throughout the county on Senior Issues. We hope to have actions for the county to enhance the quality of life for seniors in our area.
Wednesday Morning I drove to Annapolis and on invitation from District 39 State Senator Nancy King invoked the Senate of Maryland. I had done it before about 10 years ago, but it's still cool to be in our historic capital building and set a tone for the day. I spoke briefly about Martin Luther King's inspirational leadership and how great leaders tell great stories and frame challenges which unite us in common quest for meaning and community. Thanks to Ben Goldstein-Smith, from Senator King's Staff (and who I "bar mitzvahed" many years ago) for helping to make the arrangements.
On Tuesday and Wednesday following up our Yom Kippur initiatives to re-energize our community we had orientations for volunteers to serve as Ushers/Greeters. It is important to have a caring and warm face for everyone who enters our spiritual home to worship. Thanks to those who attended the workshop and a special thanks to Howard Glassman for reorganizing the greeter/usher guidelines and leading the sessions.
This Shabbat ... Sisterhood Shabbat. Sisterhood's doing almost everything... it's almost a Shabbat off!
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