Chevrei:
As this newsletter goes to print, we are making final preparations for our transition to the long anticipated rabbinic sabbatical. Rabbi Fred will take leave from our midst on July 1 and return the following July. We will miss him very much! And we have a wonderful group of people who will be with us through the next year in his absence. Rabbi George Driesen, a long-time Adat Shalom member, veteran teacher and Reconstructionist thinker, along with RRC rabbinic student Moti Rieber and Cantor Sue Roemer, will all have roles in our community in the coming year and we welcome them enthusiastically. Rabbi Sid will continue to be a presence in our community and will take a larger role in the coming year on the bimah teaching and leading services.
In addition, we are the beneficiaries of a wonderful gift. Vicki Breman, a member of our community, has offered her services for the coming year as a pastoral counselor. Vicki, in addition to being a person of wisdom and compassion, has completed formal training for this work at Sibley Hospital where she currently serves as a chaplain. She will lead workshops and groups as well as work with people on an individual basis in our community this year. We are working on creating a venue for communication with Vicki — as soon as that is in place, it will be announced to the community.
This coming year will be one of challenge and change for us. Some of us may feel some anxiety about sailing our ship while our captain is, temporarily, in another boat! I recently participated in a meeting in which some of this anxiety was expressed. I said to the group at that meeting something that bears repeating here. While the coming year may be one in which we modify our programmatic goals, our ability to join together as a community, to support one another in sorrow, and celebrate personal and communal high points will not be diminished. We are a community of many gifted and generous-of-spirit members and I believe that this is a year in which we will discover unseen strengths, both individually and as a community. I am reminded of the lesson my kids keep teaching me, which is that when I let go, they prove their competence beyond my expectations. I have to learn to see past what may be imperfect in their effort, and we will have to do the same for our community. As one of my kids recently declared, “it doesn’t have to be perfect — it just has to be good!” Even with all the excellent professional support that will be available to us this coming year, we will find out that our lay- talents and skills will carry us far and our community will be stronger for it.
We can feel very good about the sabbatical that Rabbi Fred will take this year. We are nourishing our own leader, allowing him to refill his cup, both personally and professionally, so that he can return to us even stronger as a leader and scholar. In the meantime, we can look at this year as a sabbatical for ourselves as well! We will learn and grown in ways we might not have without it.
So, as we bid l’hitra’ot (until we see you again) to Rabbi Fred, we can roll up our sleeves and get busy. To Rabbi Fred we say: May you be blessed as you go on your way. May we have the courage to be imperfect as we try on some new roles.
B’Shirah,
Hazzan Rachel