A year gone by...
2022 has been fast and furious.
It has been my first full year as a freelance rabbi.
People often ask me what I do, a hard question to answer.
Often, I get curious looks when I say that I am a rabbi, let alone a freelance rabbi. The truth be told, the work of rabbis is amorphous, varied and probably unusual. So, in one breath, here is a shout out and thanks to some of the charities, government and non-government organisations (alphabetical) that I have worked with in the year past:
Act for Change, European Masorti Beit Din, Havurah (my home community), JCoSS school, Jnetics, JW3, Leeds Masorti, Masorti Judaism, New North London Synagogue, Noam Masorti Youth, Ovarian Cancer Action, Quakers, WaterAid and Zacharias Frankel College, Potsdam. I have also officiated at five weddings, served two prisons as a chaplain and taught in Chicago at Anshe Emet Synagogue.
It’s been a year, thank God, of lots of amazing work and opportunities.
The organisations that I have worked with tell only a small part of the story of my year and of this new phase of work, it is actually the conversations and meetings with all the people I work with that change me and shape the rabbis that I want to be. I have drank litres and litres of coffee in 2022 in countless coffee shops across London and further afield and I have walked miles in open fields and woods talking about God, the future of our Jewish community and all things precious to life. These one-on-one relationships and connections are some of the finest parts of the work that I do and are the core of why I walk in the world with pride that I get to call myself a rabbi.
For my home community, Havurah, we have celebrated milestones, we have celebrated our first four B’nei Mitzvah, coming of age ceremonies over this year, marking our coming of age and growing up as a community. We have also begun our first serious learning seminar ‘Moon, Body, Soul’, which meets monthly for the beginning of the Jewish month, Rosh Hodesh. It is with the Havurah that I get to mark the passing of time and celebrate with all our heart all that we have.
When the world is spinning so fast some stuff gets dropped, I have not restarted my weekly Parsha class based around our cycle of reading in the Torah, I have not updated my social media in the last months! And I have not been updating this blog! So as the calendar year changes, it is often a time for resolutions, watch this space, I am coming back in 2023 with new energy.
In 2023 I am looking forward to new collaboration and exciting work, if you are looking for a rabbi or you work in a place that wants some of what I have to offer, please be in touch.
My last shout out goes to family and friends, I am blessed for the people I have around me. My home team, my partner Natalie, our kids are my ‘A-team’ the people who have my back each and every day, you are my life. My family and friends are my mentors for life, people on whom I depend for guidance. You are an irreverent and anarchic bunch but worth your weight in gold.
Finally Hanukah, happening now, a favourite festivals, in our family one of birthdays and anniversaries. Hanukah is a festival first and foremost of spiritual strength. The Sefat Emet talks about the essence of our soul as represented in the Hanukah flame. When the Maccabees re-entered the defaced and disgraced Temple sanctuary, in spite of the carnage they looked and searched for that one flask of oil to relight the Tempe menorah. We are that disgraced sanctuary and the message of Hanukah is that in spite of our emotional torment on any one day or some the struggles that we endure, we must nevertheless search for our own inner strength.
In 2022, I have learnt to be much more self-reliant, I have searched for and found strength from within that I never could have imagined to find.
…and now for some rest and catching up. See you in 2023 x
I am wishing everyone a year of great searching and strength.
With love..
SHABBAT SHALOM
