There are times when being a rabbi can be a most difficult and terrible burden. I may not be in a particularly good mood one evening and may offend people by not smiling or saying hello. While this does not sound like a terrible crime, it can be distressing for someone who is hurting inside. There are, I have to admit, times when I do not wish to be disturbed and I cannot find a place for solitude; but if someone needs me I cannot tell them to call back tomorrow.
And yet that role suits me better than being the official paginator. There have been more than a few people in my lifetime who have become irked because I do not announce pages every five or so minutes. And there are others who are bothered that I do not include more English in the service. Admittedly, for those who neither read Hebrew nor wish to read Hebrew, the service would be more meaningful if I became a full-time paginate and introduced lots of English. Stubbornly, I refuse.
Wouldn’t service be so much more stirring if everyone could participate by reading the Hebrew language? Imagine everyone singing, everyone reading, and davenning. Talk about uplifting! I seek to spur, urge, the congregation to mindfully educationally and spiritually grow. There in lies the core of the largest number of sermons I give, Growth. As individuals and as a community we must continually seek to expand to push the boundaries of our abilities. “Where there is no growth there is death,” teach our sages. I will not stand idly by and watch people die of spiritual malnutrition.
So I create more work for myself. More telephone calls. More letters. More urgings. And I have no problem with that. I look with pride at what I have accomplished these past years together with you. We are stronger, wiser, more active Jewishly and more capable of survival than ever before.
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