Tifereth Israel Congregation

I have a vision for Tifereth Israel as a community of shared knowledge and observance. As I see it, my job is to help teach my congregants, enabling them to become better educated and more observant Jews. Though you will see me regularly leading services, and teaching classes, and delivering divrei Torah, my vision is realized only to the extent that those in our community are able and willing to lead, to teach, and to expound.

To this end, I spend much of my time studying and teaching. At any one moment, I am teaching (in addition to a number of ongoing classes) a goodly number of individuals who are at a place in their lives where they've found time to study. This sort of teaching is extremely time consuming for me, but I believe that there is no alternative, because a knowledgeable congregation is only built one congregant at a time. Some of my students are just learning aleph-bet, coming in once a week; some are working through a Hebrew Grammar Primer and come in rarely, but email me their homework regularly to grade; some are studying Talmud in the original; all are integral to the climate of learning that I try to foster here.

Essential to this plan is my own studying. It would be unreasonable (and ineffective) for me to ask my congregants to challenge themselves intellectually, without modeling good study habits myself. I spend 1-2 hours daily studying Talmud (my favorite), Torah Commentaries, Halachah, or other primary texts. Much of what I learn surfaces in my speaking to the congregation; some of it inspires me to teach new courses; I believe that all of it combines in some undefinable, even mystical way to help me become a better servant of God.

Leading the service has become a way in which many modern Jews, or at least many members of Tifereth Israel, feel closer to God. Since we have no professional Cantor at TI, the field is wide open. I have made tapes of all of the services, and have given innumerable copies to those interested in learning to lead. Though I have a strong voice, and I lead services regularly, I feel that the congregation really shines when the services are lay-led. Some of our congregants have become so adept that they have gone on to study in a local cantorial program, and that's great, but those with less stellar voices also add to the feeling of inclusiveness and cooperation that makes our community.

We also have a vibrant Ritual Committee at which our many knowledgeable members discuss and debate the way in which we apply our tradition. While I have the final say on matters of Jewish Law, we have often reached healthy compromises on thorny issues for which I'd initially thought compromise was unworkable. It isn't easy leading in this way, but unless each voice has had a chance to be heard, how can we know how to proceed?

Like every Rabbi (like every human being), I struggle to find balance: when should I lead directly? When should I back off? How much time to spend with my family (I'm married, with 3 kids)? How much at work? In the last few years, I've found both the reality and the metaphor of unicycling helpful in this regard. I picked up the unicycle at age 40. It reminds me that balancing oneself is not a simple operation. There are constant adjustments one must make, constant risks one must assume, if one would avoid falling. At the same time, falling off a unicycle is not nearly as dangerous as it seems, just as the risks one must take in real life to maintain a good balance are often not as frightening as they first appear.

My path to the Rabbinate has not been a straight one. I graduated from Oberlin in '80 with degrees in Math and Piano Performance; I worked as a computer programmer for a number of years; I flirted with conversion to Quakerism when I thought the little I'd seen of Judaism was all there was. But what spiritual path is straight? I see my job as nurturing your soul, wherever it may be. If you think you might be interested in this congregation, give me a call, or better yet, stop by on a Shabbat morning, and I'll introduce myself to you.