Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Remarks Upon Accepting the Congregation's Vote

REMARKS TO THE CONGREGATION ~ 09.20.11

acceptance of congregational vote

Next week we will enter a new year, a year we call 5772, adding another chapter to our storied history. I cannot say what the year will bring for the Jewish People entire, but if the proceedings before the UN this week give any indication, it will not always be easy. I do know it will be a dynamic year at Westchester Reform Temple.

For eight years I have experienced the joy of serving this kehillah kedosha, this holy congregation. Being invited into the sacred moments in our congregants’ lives has helped to cultivate within me compassion, humility, and wisdom day by day. From you I continue to learn “living Torah.” I consider it the most rewarding of blessings to accept your invitation to serve as Westchester Reform Temple’s next senior rabbi.

More than eleven years ago, I became a rabbi because I believed then as now in the power of progressive, organized religion--call it Enlightened Faith--to respond the needs of a hurting world, to imbue individual lives with purpose and sanctity, to create inclusive communities of compassion and purpose, and to bring us closer to God. Enlightened Faith, Reform Judaism in particular, gives us a powerful set of tools to transform the world from the way it is into the way it ought to be. Life is messy. Excruciating challenges and exceptional opportunities upend our expectations at every turn. Yet our continual engagement with the Jewish tradition helps to feed our souls, create space for the holy, and make meaning out of this exquisite and exquisitely complicated world.

In the coming weeks, months, and years, I look forward to sharing with you my vision for the future of WRT--both on and off the bimah, starting with the D’var Torah that I will offer this Friday night. My vision has coalesced here, in a congregation distinguished for its commitment to excellence, its wariness of complacency, its eagerness to explore new and exciting ways of being Jewish and bringing the values of our faith into the world. Loving relationships with exceptional colleagues and congregants, lay leaders and mentors, have nurtured this vision. My rabbi and cantor friends lovingly (and some not so lovingly!) covet my good fortune to work with the most exceptional clergy team in America, with Jill Abramson, Dan Sklar, and Mia Fram Davidson.

No rabbi has influenced my outlook more than my friend, my rabbi, Rick Jacobs, whose vision for WRT has inspired my own. Imagining what this congregation will become after Rabbi Jacobs departs is very hard for you as it is for me. At the same time I feel relieved that the incoming President of the Union for Reform Judaism has already agreed to take my calls. I know that you join me in wishing that God’s choicest blessings will accompany Rabbi Jacobs in his undertaking. As for me: what an incomparable honor to accept this position, standing as I do on the shoulders of Rabbi Jacobs and Rabbi Jack Stern of blessed memory -- two giants of Reform Judaism (one literally and both figuratively so).

I want you to know that the way in which the Search Committee fulfilled its responsibilities provided not only an opportunity for the congregation to share its hopes and dreams for the future, but also proved catalytic for my leadership. I am grateful for the thoroughness and thoughtfulness of their work, and especially for prompting me to articulate my outlook for the synagogue, my core convictions, and the spirituality that animates my rabbinate and my life. The process was fair, transparent, and deeply respectful of the congregation and of me. Moreover, the search process has provided me with unprecedented professional and personal growth. WRT is blessed to have capable and dedicated volunteer leaders whose love for the congregation translates into so many labors of love on its behalf--on our behalf.

Kelly and I have shed tears of joy in embracing the opportunity to continue to call WRT our home. We look forward to being introduced and re-introduced to you in the weeks to come. We happily anticipate much growth together on the journey ahead. On a personal note, I give heartfelt thanks to Kelly for her unceasing devotion. From the very first she has embraced WRT and has done everything possible to support my service to this congregation that we love so dearly, all while going full steam ahead in her extraordinary career. The Rebbetzin McCormick is a blessing not only to me and my family, not only to our WRT family, but really as an exemplar for the Jewish world.

In my innermost prayers I often return to a line from the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible: “Unless the Eternal One builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (127:1). My prayer for the coming year is that we will unite in our willingness to become instruments of the Most High. May 5772 fill us with a spirit of collaboration and hope.

Amen

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