Saying Shalom...

This past Friday evening, was my first service at Bolton Street Synagogue in Baltimore, MD as the new rabbi.  This lovely congregation in the heart of Baltimore City is my new congregational home!  The words below are adapted from my first sermon.  This was my opportunity to say Shalom... to introduce myself and my vision!  Lech Lecha, may we go forth to ever greater strength... together!

Shabbat Shalom!  I’m sure there are a ton of thoughts going through your head right now...  Who’s this new Rabbi?  What’s his story?  What’s he like?  And what about Bolton Street Synagogue?  Is the congregation going to change?  Will it be different?  Will I not feel at home anymore?  But really… who is this new rabbi?

Believe me change and transition are hard!  Tonight, we begin anew.  A new rabbi for you, a new congregation for me!  As I thought about this first sermon, it thought about what I wanted to share with you.  About my vision, about my hopes, and about me!  My rabbinate and my life revolve around relationship and stories.  So what better way to start than to share some stories.  About the moments that impacted me and more importantly changed my rabbinate.  So here we go!

Picture it, a classroom of fifth grade students!  About a dozen students.  In front of you is a rabbi.  Not me, I’m only in fifth grade!  It’s Rabbi Ed Garsek, one of my rabbis.  He was teaching my class that day and we were studying Torah.  I’m not sure what I said or even what I did, but I do remember Rabbi Garsek’s response.  He looked directly into my eyes and he said to me: “You’ll be a great rabbi one day.”  And those words changed my life.

Rabbi Garsek saw something in me.  A spark and he pulled it out of me.  From that day, I wanted to be just like him: a teacher, a friend, a mentsch.  My rabbinate is based upon the lessons he taught me.  To live Judaism.  To guide others.  To truly know a person, their thoughts, their passions, their fears, and help them live a better life.  My rabbinate is built upon transformative moments.  It’s these small moments, face-to-face, that transform not only our lives, but the lives of our community, and the greater world.

About ten years later, I’m now a college graduate.  I’m living in Boston, working in the Jewish community.  And I’m searching, searching for a spiritual home.  A couple friends and I shul shop.  Each Friday evening, we travel to a new synagogue to experience worship and look for a community.  Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Non-Denominational.  We try it all… yet nothing sticks.  Nothing feels right. 

That’s when we decided to create our own service.  We called ourselves the Minyanaires and over the course of a year, twice a month, we joined together for services and a potluck dinner.  It was informal, it was filled with singing, and it was brimming full of community.  I knew everyone there, a dozen of us, or so.  We prayed, we studied Torah, and we ate!  Since that day, I’ve never found a community that felt the same as that one.  I’ve been searching for that community.  A place to call home, a place where others feel comfortable.  A spiritual community that is built on relationship, where we study, grapple, learn, pray, eat, and join hands to change the world.

Now move ahead with me.  I decided to follow Rabbi Garsek’s advice and I enrolled in the Hebrew Union College, the Reform Rabbinical School.  I spent five years in Israel and New York City.  My student congregations were in Rocky Mount, NC; Williamsport, PA; Mount Sinai Hospital in the Palliative Care Unit.  I was ordained as a rabbi and became the first Assistant Rabbi at Scarsdale Synagogue.  Later, I moved to Long Island to become an Associate Rabbi at Temple Sinai of Roslyn. 

I love being a rabbi.  I loved teaching, lifecycles, hanging out with the kids, and studying with adults.  But, there was one moment in my rabbinate that changed my life.  It all began through an e-mail.  A rabbinic friend and colleague from Chicago, Rabbi Seth Limmer, asked if I would join him for a 40 day march from Selma Alabama to Washington DC.  This was a march coordinated by the NAACP during the summer of 2015.  This was Black Lives Matter.  This was Police Shootings.  Ferguson.  NYC.  Baltimore.  This was about justice and making our world a better place.   It would be a 40 day journey, a walk across the south.  And they needed a rabbi each day to carry the Torah.  I would travel for one day, but the Torah would travel all forty.

And so, there I was, in the deep south, a small town in Georgia about 2 hours from Atlanta.  It was powerful to march and carry the Torah, but even more importantly was the relationships.  Hearing the stories of my fellow African-American marchers.  Learning about the injustice, the fear they had for their kids, the challenges they went through.  This was about making a different.  Praying with our feet.  Our world was in turmoil and my role, our role, is to make a difference.  To do our part with the interfaith community, to change our world for the better.

These three stories are just small moments in my life and my rabbinate.  There are plenty of others, but these three express who I am and my vision of Jewish life and of Bolton Street Synagogue.  That vision is to create sacred connections through study, prayer and tikkun olam, in order to bring about transformative change in our lives and our world.  Transformative change is the key.  And that only exists through relationship.  We must know one another, be comfortable with one another, and trust one another.

We build sacred connection through study.  We learn Torah because these ancient words impact our lives for the better.  But more importantly, we learn from one another because each of us has Torah to teach.

We build sacred connection through prayer.  There is power when we pray together, sing together, and join together face-to-face.  It’s how we recharge, how we hope, how we dream of the future.

We build sacred connection through tikkun olam.  When we join hand-in-hand, we have the ability to transform hearts, advocate for change, and rebuild a broken world.

You’ve already learned a little bit about me.  I’m excited to learn more about you.  Together, through study, prayer, and tikkun olam, we’ll build stronger relationships.  Yet, these Jewish actions must do something more, they must transform us into better people, a better community, and a better world.  I’m looking forward to doing that with you for a long time to come!