Dear friends:
As one of the special Jewish people in my life, you are a recipient of this message, the first in what I hope will be an ongoing, ~quarterly series of updates on my rabbi-ing (OK, not a real word but one I enjoy) in many venues. Your feedback is most welcome.
As always, my greatest love as a rabbi is in teaching adults; highlights for me over these past several months were talks I prepared and delivered on Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll in Jewish texts, The Sinai Covenant (or Take Two Tablets and Call me in the Morning), Can Aliens be Part of a Minyan? (in conjunction with my roughly bimonthly itinerant rabbi-ing in Roswell, New Mexico) and a semi-scholarly lecture I gave on Maimonides and Judah HaLevi, the Polar Opposites of Medieval Jewish Philosophy. I am continuing a weekly Shabbat Talmud class with HaMakom in Santa Fe at the hideous hour of 8:45 AM, but the group is so dedicated and receptive that I almost don’t curse the alarm.
On the more somber side, I had a difficult period in late 2010 which found me conducting three funeral services in as many weeks, following on the heels of numerous hospital visits. It was hard to be unaware of my own mortality amidst all this sadness, but as always I appreciated the opportunity to help some families find comfort through our Jewish traditions. Not for the first time in my life did I find myself singing Psalm 121 in a hospital room, but this time I had a nurse come by and say it sounded nice out in the hallway. I think I was getting a message to shut the door.
Other rabbinic visits were a bit different though no less thought-provoking and included trips to the Santa Fe Juvenile Detention Center and the Los Alamos County Jail. At this Pesach season when we are commanded to be thankful for our freedom, it is valuable to remind ourselves that even in our society we are not all free.
Life cycle events continue to play a role in my rabbinic life, and I felt privileged to conduct a trio of weddings last summer. The one in Princeton, New Jersey, was especially enjoyable for me because my daughter, Orli, accompanied me on the trip. At that wedding she got to see her Dad outnumbered by dozens of physicians, several of whom (bride, groom, best man, maid of honor, groomsmen, bridesmaids,…) were under the chuppah. How many doctors does it take to….?
I found time to conduct Friday night services and even chant part of Megillat Esther at my favorite European synagogue, Or Chadasch in Vienna, Austria. Particularly memorable was when the subway decided to stop running and I had to hoof it to the shul, arriving 20 minutes late. The congregation started without me, yet they welcomed me most graciously to the bimah (as soon as my eyeglasses unfogged). I get the best part of the deal in Vienna – in return for my involvement with a truly wonderful community, I received a copy of their brand new siddur with my name inscribed in gold lettering on the spine. I never knew before that I was a Rabbiner!
I had great fun when HaMakom held a social event at my apartment called “Jack in the Books,” and I got to show off my library to over two dozen book lovers. In addition to my new siddur, I’ve recently acquired the last volumes of the ArtScroll Yad Avraham Mishnah series and am finding it a valuable rabbinic text tool. A full shelf was recently filled with the second edition of Encyclopedia Judaica – the articles written after 1971 are certainly most welcome, but I miss all the lovely pictures from the earlier edition. Another recent arrival was by my teacher, Rabbi Gershon Winkler, who wrote “The Judeo-Christian Fiction” which promises to be provocative.
I haven’t just been BUYING books – my numerous trips to Vienna have afforded me a chance to catch up on some reading as well. Especially noteworthy were “Maimonides, Spinoza and Us” by Rabbi Marc Angel (the inspiration for my aforementioned Maimonides and HaLevi talk), “Dybbuks and Jewish Women in Social History, Mysticism and Folklore” by Rachel Elior (the choice inspired by my active involvement with HaMakom), and “The Road into the Open” by Arthur Schnitzler. This last book gave me an even greater appreciation than I’d had before of fin-de-siecle Vienna and its debt to Jews.
If you’ve managed to read this far, I applaud you and hope to send you another message in this vein in three or four months.
May your Pesach be joyous, restful and re-Jewvenating.
Chag kasher v’sameah,
Rabbi Jack