Rabbi Julie Pelc Adler, Congregation Am Echod in Lindenhurst
Shabbat Shalom! I’m so pleased to be here tonight, the first Erev Shabbat service as your new rabbi. It’s been just about exactly one year since I first encountered this community and began to think about the possibility of serving as a rabbi here. It was last year on July 15th, in fact, that I came here to meet with members of the search committee and board. I was very newly pregnant with our second child, our daughter, Maya (who’s here tonight, now 4 ½ months old!) and the timing wasn’t right for me to begin something new.
Since that date last summer, though, we have all cycled through an entire calendar year of seasons, Jewish holidays, and Torah portions. And, as Fortune would have it, we’ve cycled tonight right into the one Parasha that encapsulates it all: Parashat Pinchas. The portion describes the cycle of one Jewish year and highlights each of the important milestones we’ve encountered along the way: it describes the holidays one by one and outlines the unique observances for each, beginning with the most frequently observed and then proceeding to the annual cycle of holidays: It begins with the daily offerings; then proceeds to describe Shabbat; then the Monthly new moon celebrations; and finally, Passover; Shavuot; Rosh Hashanah; Yom Kippur; Sukkot; and Shmini Atzeret.
How perfect that as we, at Am Echod, are approaching the one year cycle since we began a conversation that brought us to this moment, the Torah, too, cycles back to describe each of the events that have occurred in the life of the Jewish community since last July.
But just as the Torah couldn’t possibly trace my personal journey through this past year: pregnancy, childbirth, and then welcoming a new baby girl into the covenant of the Jewish people, it also couldn’t possibly know what has happened in each of your lives this past year:
Who among us have lost someone we love?
Who has started or ended a job? A friendship? A significant relationship?
Who has bought or sold a house? A business?
Who has welcomed a new member of their family?
Celebrated a simcha?
This kind of knowing takes time - and effort. It is the stuff of building community. This is what we do when we reach out to one another in good times and in hard times to see how we might help and support one another.
This is the Torah that we must write together. And I am so looking forward to journeying with you through the next cycle of the year. How will we celebrate and mourn and mark the passage of time together?
I will look forward to helping to forge this path alongside you - and want very much to get to know each of you better. Please reach out by phone or email and let’s make a date to talk more about your life, your joys, your sorrows. That’s what I’m here for!
In another section of the Torah portion, Pinchas, we learn about a transition in leadership. Up until now, the People have only known one leader, Moses, as they journeyed from Egypt, through the wilderness, and toward the Promised Land. But now there will be a new leader, Joshua, who will become the new leader of the People. Joshua is described in Numbers 27:18 as “a man in whom there is spirit”.
What does it mean to have a new leader? What does it mean to be a new leader? What does it mean to have spirit?
There’s a transition period as the new leader must gain the trust of the People. Joshua is given the charge to be chazzak v’amatz (often translated as “may you be strong and courageous”). I would add that the People, too, must be strong and courageous as they open their hearts to welcome someone new.
So may it be with us, new rabbi, new congregation, as we journey forward together.
Shabbat Shalom!
