Farewell Remarks from Temple Shaaray Tefila - May 29, 2015

(To view these remarks, you can click here and search for "Kabbalat Shabbat 5/29." The program honoring me in my farewell from Shaaray Tefila begins just before the 1:17:00 mark, and this speech below begins at about 2:08:00.)

Shabbat shalom. Thank you to Esther-Ann, Marna, Randi, Ruth, Heather, Sharon and Steven, Rosaly and Stuart, Hal and Jill, and Mindy for making this evening just perfect.

Thank you all so much for being here tonight. I’m honored and humbled and touched beyond words. But…I am a rabbi, after all, so there’s probably words anyway.

For nine years rabbinically, and probably more than that in my days as a teacher here in our religious school, I have stood at this lectern, on this hallowed bimah. And as I have looked out on scores of faces—faces of joy and gratitude, the ecstasy of celebration, rejuvenation and relief, pain and loss—I have gazed repeatedly and continuously at this wooden plate up here. It says Da lifnei mi atah omed, a phrase from the Talmud, which means, “Know before Whom you stand.” And of course, that means God.

I love that that sits here, as it fills me at once with both awe and comfort. Awe in knowing that when I stand here as shaliach tzibur, leading worship or giving a sermon or d’var Torah, I stand in the Presence of God, honored and humbled to do my part of God’s work. Comfort in knowing that God is with me – not just on this bimah, but wherever I go, whatever I say or do.

So I’ll begin by thanking God, before Whom I stand. For blessing me with the holy privilege of serving this community as rabbi. For endowing me with the gifts I have received, and for inspiring me to use them to further Your name in the world. For giving me the strength and courage to do what’s right, even when – especially when – it’s hardest to do so. And for the opportunity to do what I love, what is most fulfilling to my heart and my soul, every day of my life.

That phrase took on a different meaning a few years ago, when the Milich family generously commissioned and contributed the beautiful ark doors behind me. Not only has our sanctuary become even more awe-inspiring with the illustrations of the Ten Commandments on the sides of the aron, but it also forever altered the experience of standing in front of the ark, the frosted glass now both a window into our tradition, and a mirror of reflection. Now when I stand in that space, reading liturgy or listening to the cantors’ majestic voices, I stand not only before God, I stand literally before myself, confronted head-on with who I am, who I have become.

When my time as a teacher and then as a rabbinic intern came to a close, and I learned of the rabbinic opening here, to officially work with the incredible clergy team here, the choice really wasn’t much of a choice at all. This is where I had found and started to build my spiritual home, the first community in which I would set down rabbinic roots.

So I’d like to take a moment to thank Rabbi Stein. While my teaching experience here had been a positive one to be sure, the first and most significant reason I wanted to be here at Shaaray Tefila was because I knew that I wanted—really, needed—to have you, Jon, as my mentor. I knew that the rabbi and mensch who sat at the other end of the table of the HUC admissions interview would be the mentor sitting across from me at the table in your study. To learn from you, by word and by deed, to be challenged by you, pushed and motivated and inspired by you, was, without a doubt, top of the list of what brought me here, an experience even more enriching and rewarding than I had hoped it would be. So thank you, Rabbi Stein.  

The honor of serving this historic congregation was multiplied many times over by having a seat at the table with the All-Star team that is the senior staff of Shaaray Tefila. And that’s not any type of exaggeration. The decades of experience that I have gleaned from serving alongside so many of the best, most talented, recognized and respected of synagogue professionals is priceless. However corny it may sound, it is the truth that our staff is my second family, a collective rock of support I always know, no matter what else is going in our lives, loves, takes care of, and protects each other.

While time does not permit me to thank every individual member of the staff, I would be remiss if I didn’t especially thank those with whom I have worked most closely over the years. Rabbi Hirsch: Deborah, you are my bonus mentor, the mentor I didn’t get to choose, but would most certainly have, given the chance. From you I have learned how to zoom out, to take a step back and see as many different facets from as many different perspectives as possible, to appreciate the entirety and complexity of people with whole-hearted empathy, to see and maximize the positive in a situation. You have been the fearless captain of the SS Shaaray through unchartered, sometimes rocky, waters, and you have done valiantly.

Maria, it has been an honor and privilege to lead t’filot with you and your soaring voice, to have created and led High Holy Day worship from the new machzor, to have a friend to speak Hebrew with, and share the joys and challenges of parenting small children while serving a synagogue community. Thank you.

Todd, we started together as interns, fell in love with this community and joined its full-time ranks in successive years, and I am proud to have been the clergy continuity throughout the many changes in the congregation throughout our time. Thank you for being not only a terrific clergy partner, but a good friend and a trusted confidant, even despite my being a Phillies and Eagles fan.

Mindy, thank you for your vision and your passion, your love of and dedication to creating a new generation –all ages included – of connected, learned Jews. You are an inspiration not just to our families, but to your colleagues as well. Thank you for your friendship, your humor, your sharp wit, and your honesty. It is no wonder that you served the National Association of Temple Educators as their president, and honored just a few weeks ago with your doctorate from HUC.

And Hope, my partner in crime—in leading our students on life-changing excursions; creating a partnership and Teen Exchange program with our family in Haifa that is the envy of every congregation; in being the social media team of Shaaray Tefila, with endless pop culture references only we understand; thank you for a meaningful and always entertaining relationship, both professionally and personally.    

In our time together, I have become a rabbi, a husband, a father. While many of our colleagues have an allergic reaction to the concept of a calling, I never have. I felt called to be a rabbi long before I was even conscious of it, an innate, indescribable sense that, while there were many paths I could have chosen, this was the one for me, and I carry that with me every single day of my life.

So I’d like to thank my parents, whose shining examples of how to be a good person, a rabbi, a partner in marriage, and a parent has always and continues to light the way for me. Thank you for your endless, unconditional love and support, your sage wisdom, your friendship, for being there with me and for me through all of the ups and downs that have led us to this moment. Thank you to my brother Adam, for being the genetic yin to my yang, for getting all of my stupid movie quotes and shtick that has come to drive my parents mad, and for always being a terrific listener and the greatest cheerleader I could have as a brother.

What I didn’t know until it happened is that I would come to feel that same sense of calling, of ultimate destiny, to be a husband to Tali, and a father to my sweet boys, Jonah and Gabriel. Tal, thank you for being so so much more than my better half; for keeping me balanced, for knowing when to comfort and when to challenge me; for pushing me to be the best rabbi, husband, father, friend, and person I can be; for knowing me better than any soul in the world and still loving me anyway. You are my rock, my companion, my best friend. I love you more than words can say. Go Team Strom.  

And to know before whom I stand means that I stand—humbled, honored, and awestruck—before all of you. It is you who have blessed me over and over again: by welcoming me into this congregation with open arms; to have allowed me to be part of your lives; to have celebrated with you the moments of joy and success and accomplishment; to have stood by your side to comfort and guide you through moments of pain and sadness and loss; to have felt the warmth of your trust and confidence in sharing your lives with me. It is you, the families of Shaaray Tefila, who have played such a crucial role in making me the rabbi that I am today, a rabbi ready to spread my wings and take all that I have learned here and bring it to a new congregation.

The phrase from our tradition that sums up everything for me is just two Hebrew words from the 23^rd Psalm: Kosi r’vayah: “My cup runneth over.” And so I raise my cup of life to you, to all of you, as this isn’t a celebration of me, but a celebration of all of us together.

L’chaim. Thank you so much.