Thank you for giving me the privilege of being your rabbi. I cannot imagine my life outside of the synagogue. You have given the greatest gift—a purpose, a community, a way to serve God and the Jewish people.
[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”]I know it’s a bit cliche to say I’m living the dream—but I really am. Outside of being a husband and a father, nothing makes me feel prouder and luckier than to say I am the rabbi of this congregation.
And thank you for being part of Solel. Thank you for joining a synagogue. You are a counter-cultural group—I don’t mean that in the political or social sense, though some of us might be. I mean it in that those of us who join a synagogue are making an important statement in a highly individualistic culture.
We care about being part of the Jewish community. We care about supporting a place where rich and poor, observant and non-observant, young and old, singles and couples—come together as one. We care about a place dedicated to the ideal that every human being is created in the image of God. You make this place.
A rabbi can hold a ladder, the Baal Shem Tov taught, but only a community can determine how high it goes. The ladder we have constructed continues to reach higher and higher.
It is with that ladder that we live out the key verse of this week’s Torah portion. In Leviticus Ch. 10 God says to Moses and Aaron, “Through those who come close to me, my holiness is magnified.” We—our community—magnify God’s presence in the world.
We are the hands and heart of God. May we continue to move closer to God—and to one another—in the years ahead.
