Shabbat Korach, Installation of the Board of Trustees
Rabbi Michael Adam LatzRabbi Baruqa of Huza often went to the marketplace at Lapet. One day, the prophet Elijah appeared to him there. Rabbi Baruqa asked him, "Is there anyone among all these people who will have a share in Olam HaBa—the World to Come?"
Elijah looked across the market place and his heart sank. "There is none."
Later that day, two men in fanciful, bawdy costumes came to the marketplace. One wore a sheepskin hat adorned with rubies and dolphin skin, while the other's robe was as pink as a sunset, with a crown of deer hide, blueberries, and fig leaves woven as a cape. The two men looked utterly ridiculous.
The townspeople began jeering at the newcomers, laughing, pointing, some with their mouths agape.
Elijah, tending the festering wounds of the lepers and the entrance of the market place, looked up to see what was causing such a ruckus. Seeing the two men, he cast a sidelong glance toward Rabbi Baruqa. "Those two will have a share in Olam HaBah, the World to Come!"
Rabbi Baruqa was indignant! He addressed the men as onlookers gaped at the curiously adorned spectacles. “What,” he asked with a slight tone of indignation, “is your occupation?”
They replied with a smile. “We are clowns. When we see someone who is sad, we cheer him up. When we see two people quarreling, we try to make peace between them." [Talmud, Ta'anit 22a].
I'm reminded of that Barbra Streisand song, “send in the clowns, there ought to be clowns… don't bother, they're here.”
Tonight, we celebrate and install our board of trustees for the 2010–2011 year. Your sacred task is to lead our congregation; to partner with your rabbi in setting forth the vision and to govern our congregation; to be prudent and ethical stewards of our financial resources; to set an example of living a meaningful Jewish life.
Leadership is one of those elusive terms that means different things to different people. To lead Jewishly is to articulate a vision of holy community and then mobilize the congregation to make said vision manifest. It is no small task.
You as a board of trustees have embraced the call to lead our congregation into the coming year.
Like the rabbis of the Talmud, your success will rest upon your ability to laugh at the absurd, to make peace when there is strife, to bring to life a sense of holy community of diversity, spiritual promise, and Jewish authenticity. All the while, ensuring a healthy partnership with the staff, raising the dollars we need to operate, and sharing in the precious moments which mark our lives.
So I ask you, are you willing to share your wisdom, your time, your skills, and your treasures to lead Shir Tikvah in the coming year?
We thank you!
Deuteronomy teaches that, “Adonai will open your heart and the hearts of your offspring to love the Eternal Your God with all your heart and soul, for the entirety of your life. (Deut 30:6).”
What does it mean to lead with an open heart? It means engaging in Jewish study and asking probing questions of our people and our future; it means embracing the wide diversity of our people today and inviting them into building this holy community; it means listening to the deepest longing of our souls and entrusting we will keep these yearnings at the forefront of our vision as we move forward.
Tonight, on this Shabbat, we pray that your hearts are open and your hands are ready to move in service of our holy congregation.
Together, we conclude with these words from the great poet, Marge Piercy.
Look around us, search above us, below, behind.
We stand in a great web of being joined together.
Let us praise, let us love the life we are lent
passing through us in the body of Israel
and our own bodies, let's say amein.
Time flows through us like water.
The past and the dead speak through us.
We breathe out our children's children, blessing.
Blessed is the earth from which we grow,
blessed the life we are lent,
blessed the ones who teach us,
blessed the ones we teach,
blessed is the word that cannot say the glory
that shines through us and remains to shine
flowing past distant suns on the way to forever,
Let's say amein. . .
(Marge Piercy, Kaddish. The Art of Blessing the Day [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999], p. 138)
June 11, 2010
