The old shall be made new and the new be made holy.
Abraham Isaac Kook
As Reform Jews and as spiritual leaders, we are blessed to occupy ourselves with the reforming of our tradition, our liturgy, our rituals and our music. We are charged with the responsibility of making informed choices in regard to our sense of spirituality and creating communities. I believe in a Cantorate that is informed by choices that emerge out of knowledge, study, experience and inner memory, so that a strong connection between the ancient and the new is upheld and cultivated.
Come here, I will show you a new way to the Creator – not through speech, but through song! Let us sing and Heaven will understand us.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov
We know of the power of music and its ability to reveal layers of joy, pain, longing, hopes and fears, dreams and visions. Music is able to bring us from one state to another, to literally be moved. Music makes a community. It occupies a central role in many of the stories of our Jewish tradition and can bring us closer to hearing the world the way we’ve imagined that God hears the world.
I aspire to utilize music as a medium to uplift and inspire, to evoke and transcend, to infuse and transcend.
Every dispute that is for the sake of Heaven, will have a constructive outcome
Pirkei Avot 5:17
As a member of the clergy of the congregation, I serve as a leader of worship, educator, counselor, creative programmer and role model to our congregants of all ages. In my relationships with members and officials of the congregation, clergy partners and staff, I believe in service L’shem Shamayim (for the sake of Heaven) -using my individual talents to work for the benefit and to nurture the spiritual life of our community. For the sake of Heaven, we create communal and lifecycle moments that explore the pathways to connect between people and prayer, people and God, people with each other and people with the rich wisdom and beauty of their faith. For the sake of Heaven, we cultivate deep respect for other human beings, especially for those with viewpoints opposed to our own.
A person has to renew their intellect at all times. This is the aspect of “In God’s goodness God renews daily, always, the work of Creation” (Morning Liturgy). For the renewal of Creation is the renewal of wisdom, as in, “You created everything with wisdom.”
Likutei Moharan 35:2:1
We all share the need for belonging, spirituality, meaning, purpose, mourning and celebration of life. By identifying strategies to meet those needs, we partner with God in renewing the act of creation through adaptation, study, collaboration and action in an ever changing world. Using the toolbox of our tradition, I endeavor to create spaces that contribute towards finding strategies to meet the needs that are alive within us and deepening our spiritual and Jewish self-awareness.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for people to dwell together in unity!
Psalm 133:1
Goodness in coming together is not necessarily a default state. Through mindfulness and attention into the experience of being a community, it is up to us to create that goodness expressed by the psalmist.
I aim to model a Judaism that fosters inclusivity and a welcoming essence into each communal gathering – whether it’s a sacred congregational moment or life cycle service. Through compassion, curiosity, willingness to engage, weaving the individual narrative with that of the community in an empathic way and the courage to be authentically ourselves we make a dwelling together in unity possible.
It is my hope and prayer that I will continue to serve a community in meaningful ways that matter and that are received as a blessing.