T
he
Torah
portion we
began reading yesterday
afternoon,
Bemidbar
,
has a
lot to say about lifting up. As
the Israelites crowd together
in the wilderness, Moses is told to lift up the
head of each Israelite as he determines how
many of them are ready to join the minions of
God in advancing on the unknown between
Egypt and the Promised Land.
The instruction is given
b’midbar Sinai b’o-
hel mo-ed,
in the midbar of Sinai, in theTent of
Meeting.What a tantalizing description! It was
not given
b’har Sinai,
at the mountain of Sinai
(
they were there a year before), but at the
mid-
bar
Sinai, the wilderness that Sinai had created.
How could that be? Didn’t Sinai bring order,
law –
Torah
–
to the Israelites? How could it
also have brought a wilderness?
Leading a people through a wilderness
to the Promised Land is exhausting work.
And so, God spoke to Moses in a protected
place, in the
ohel moed,
the Tent of Meeting,
the Tent of the Appointed Time, a place
like…the sanctuary of Temple Israel in the
wilderness of Hollywood. Some of you will be
plying your rabbinates in synagogues like this
one, protected spaces that will let you confront
the crises of the wilderness in manageable
terms. But others of you will have to build your
own
ohel moed
–
a private space in your day
school or religious school, a corner at Hillel
where you can breathe and be alone, a quiet
street on your drive to your part-time ap-
pointments where you can
daven Shacharit
all
by yourself. Heschel has taught us how
important is the palace in time that God built
into
Shabbat
–
but this week’s
parasha
reminds
us that we need, if not a palace in space, at least
a room, a seat, where we can keep our ap-
pointments with the Holy One.
If you are diligent about finding this pro-
tected space, you will gradually discover that
something remarkable is happening to you. If
you are able to take refuge at appointed times
with your God in your own private space, you
will learn what an
ohel moed
feels like – and
you will gradually realize that you are becom-
ing an
ohel moed
for the people who learn
Torah
from you and who come to you for guid-
ance in the wilderness. If you have found your
own
ohel,
you will not be afraid to grow into an
ohel
for others, to take them in for their ap-
pointed time with you, and help them find the
confidence to grow into an
ohel
for the people
who rely on them.
If you grow into an
ohel
for others, open-
ing them to
Torah
and prayer and the
prophetic calling, then wherever you ply your
rabbinate, it will become clear that you as a Re-
form rabbi – an authentic rabbi – matter; and
therefore the Reform Judaism you embody
matters. Whether Reform Judaism will still
matter in 10 years, in 25 years, to a great extent
will depend on you.
For complete Ordination Address, please go to:
warns us that living fully to our potential does
not come and cannot come from
consuming
knowledge, from swallowing some magical
fruit. It is not a quick fix and does not grow on
trees. It is earned with sweat and pain, joy and
laughter/love in our relation with neighbors
and strangers, with friends and foes. And above
all, it is learned in that most precious web of
relationships and links that we cultivate.
The first couple learned that lesson. We
usually ignore Adam and Eve after their ex-
pulsion. Yet, it is precisely here, outside the
garden, that the couple teaches us the most:
they turn back – not back to Eden – but to
one another and to God. The man who had
blamed the woman now turns towards her.
They enter into intimate relation. They have
a child and the woman names him in honor
of her renewed partnership with God. With
those steps, the journey toward meaningful
use of genuine knowledge has truly begun.
We live in a time longing to mend and a
world in need of mending. We hope that you
will carry the holy with you and practice what
Heschel calls “moral grandeur and spiritual
audacity,” and really change the world.
But you cannot do it alone and you don’t
have to do it alone. Turn to one another, turn
to
Torah,
turn to those who came before you,
and turn to those who are coming next.
Graduation/Ordination/Investiture
2009
Los Angeles – May 17, 2009 – Rabbi Richard Levy,
Director, School of Rabbinical Studies, HUC-JIR/Los Angeles
A
s you assume your po-
sitions today as rabbis
among the people Israel,
I would look to the
Sephardic tradition and the
titles that are used within that tradition.
These titles delineate the qualifications that
are necessary in order for you to serve as
ro’ei
yisrael,
spiritual shepherds and leaders of this
people Israel.
The rabbi in the Sephardic tradition is
often referred to as a
MarbitzTorah
–
a teacher,
quite literally a spreader of
Torah
.
You cannot
be a rabbi without Jewish learning. However,
that learning is not
Wissenschaft,
an academic
kind of learning, alone. Of course, at this in-
stitution, we believe that
Wissenschaft,
the
academic study of Judaism, can lead to, and
in fact must be, an integral part of Jewish
faith. Nevertheless, we ask you to understand
your knowledge of Torah as more than
Wissenschaft
.
It must be understood as
Reli-
gionsunterricht,
religious instruction, as well.
The purpose of Jewish learning, the mastery
of
Torah
that you possess, is not knowledge
for its own sake. Rather, your knowledge
must be engaged. You have immersed yourself
in study in order to teach. Your task as a rabbi
is to take Jewish tradition, internalize it
within your very being, and then take that
teaching, your
Torah
,
and spread its insights
and share its meanings with others.
Yet, the Sephardic tradition is not con-
tent to label the rabbi only as
Marbitz Torah
.
The rabbi is also identified as a
Haver
,
a col-
league, a friend. You must identify with and
Cincinnati – June 6, 2009 – Rabbi David Ellenson,
President, HUC-JIR
84
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