CCAR News - May 2008 - (Page 2) (Continued from front page) But the CCAR needs to be more effective in touching and supporting members in the future. Fortunately, under the leadership of Debbie Prinz as our Director of Program and Member Services, we already see many enhanced relationships. I also believe that we need to engage better our colleagues who serve as chaplains, many of whom have already volunteered to work with the CCAR, to build more effective methods of touching the lives of individual rabbis in need. Rabbinic self care, including time for spiritual growth But, I need to ask (as I have done before), who cares for you? Who helps you find your own Jewish path? Who ensures that you care for yourselves just as you care for the members of your communities? Stopping work for the seven days of Shiva was a shock to my system. Like many of you, I truly enjoy my work. Except for Shabbat, I have not Each night, as Karen and I sat Shiva, the sadness would dissipate for a really taken any time for self-care since beginning as your Executive Vice few moments as a classmate or other colleague walked through the door President almost two years ago. Email, telephone calls, meetings, planfor minyan. In many ways, I was reminded of the words from a Grateful Dead song (which even touched upon the timing of the minyanim), “sun ning, responding, traveling, and reading business mail, dominate my days. Unfortunately, I have allowed the demands of this work to intrude into both going up and then the sun it’s going down, shine through my window and my family life and my own spiritual needs. my friends they come around.” Each day during this period of Shloshim, you, our friends and “Indeed, it is the colleagues, have “come around.” We use the words “self-care” or “rabbinic wellness” almost as code words. But, who mission and mandate Our opportunities for personal and among us has the key to the code? of the Conference to empower communal transformation From my experience during Shiva, and in the each one of you as religious, The profound influence many of you have had on me past two years, it seems to me that many of you spiritual and organizational during the past two weeks has come from even more have the key to care for others but not than your presence as friends. It indeed has been leaders. The role of the rabbi necessarily for yourselves. enhanced by your skills as Sh’lichei Tzibur, spiritual may be seen on both macro guides and teachers of Torah. As you repeated to me the words HaMakom and micro levels: as Yinachem daily, you reminded me of my need to It was especially powerful when you who served reengage with HaMakom. With your encouragecomprehensive, total and as our rabbis skillfully interwove teachings from the ment, the week of Shiva afforded me the time transforming the larger world to refocus on my relationship with God and to parashah, Midrash and Hasidic literature into our rediscover that sacred space within myself where mourning process and into the life of our mom and in which we live, and at the I find both comfort and God. our entire family. These moments strengthened my conviction that the Conference must continue to provide opportunities for both study and professional development. As teachers of Torah, we must regularly study Torah. At the same time, we need to hone our instrumental skills which are crucial to our ability to serve as spiritual teachers and organizational leaders in our communities. This week’s convention program particularly illustrates ways we can address these issues: days of beit midrash study, different models of Sh’lichei Tzibur, speakers on moral leadership, a day dedicated to professional development, and individual opportunities for coaching. All of these experiences are now a part of additional professional development programs recently introduced by the CCAR during the year. These opportunities enable us to enhance our skills so that we are better able to touch the lives of community members as they seek to find their own Jewish path. As we gather in Cincinnati, we recall that this city is more than the birthplace of the UAHC/URJ and HUC-JIR. Here, in 1889, the CCAR came into being under the leadership of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise. Since that time, the rabbis of the CCAR have provided leadership to every aspect of Jewish life. We have written the platforms that guide the Reform Movement, produced the Siddurim that create holy places in our communities and for our members, and we have transmitted and translated unique Jewish values from one generation to the next. Indeed, it is the mission and mandate of the Conference to empower each one of you as religious, spiritual and organizational leaders. The role of the rabbi may be seen on both macro and micro levels: as comprehensive, total and transforming the larger world in which we live, and at the same time in a much more localized way, shaping the lives of individual Jews, one person at a time. While the CCAR’s programs and member services focus on the mission and your role as rabbi in your community’s life, at the same time, we cannot lose sight of the well being of each rabbi. During the past two weeks during Shiva and Shloshim, you have done both for me — affected my view of the larger world in which we live but also cared for me as an individual. 2 same time in a much more localized way, shaping the lives of individual Jews, one person at a time.” Clearly, the work of the Conference needs to involve facilitating the process by which each of you finds the opportunity to engage with HaMakom in your life — be it through prayer, study, activism, family, or simply time alone. This is another challenge for us and especially for your elected leadership. Be it by education or advocacy, the Conference must begin to address the need to change the platitude of self-care into an actuality for each rabbi — for each one of you as a whole person seeking holiness for yourselves. In that way, K’doshim T’hi-u… you shall be holy As you become holy through your own self-care, you are better able to guide members of your communities to holiness. You shall be Holy During these past two weeks of Shloshim, we have been reading and studying from Vayikra. Yesterday, I mentioned to the CCAR Board that at moments during Shiva and Shloshim I have felt very caught up in the details of life which make up the details of Leviticus: those of death and love, purity and impurity, and even in the details of “the clothes you discard.” However, the transcendent power of Leviticus lies not in the details but in the entire book as a Holiness Code, providing for our ancestors and for us pathways to holiness. To me the CCAR forges paths to holiness for rabbis and thus, ultimately, for the people you serve. Just as we may become bogged down in the details of Shiva, so too do we become caught up in the details of daily life… budgets, finance, preaching, teaching, politics, and more. But when we take time out from the work — even during a time of Shiva — for self-care, we may again see the purpose of our lives, the building and maintaining of holy communities. K’doshim T’hi-u. May you find holiness in your life, and in that way may you be blessed to bring holiness to the people we serve. Rabbi Steven A. Fox Executive Vice President, CCAR
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