My Dear Congregation,
As I pondered the last few days of my role as Senior Rabbi of HEA, I reflected on how many services I led on the bema in my 36 years in the Rabbinate. Including all the Shabbatot, High Holidays, and Festivals, it adds up to roughly 2100 services. So many simchas, so many B’nai Mitzvah, so many birthdays, so many anniversaries and anniversaries of B’nai Mitzvah! What a joy it has been. Tomorrow will be the last one: service 2101. It would be great to see you in shul tomorrow to celebrate with my family and me.
I have had many thoughts about this transition in my life. When the Torah ends, and we read the last sentence on Simchat Torah, we pause not even a minute before we read the Haftorah, where we take up the action again with Joshua leading the People into the Promised Land. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once wrote that the Torah ends in the middle of the story. It is hardly an ending. One might say that we all live in the middle of our stories, stories that continue to be written each and every day. As my career as Senior Rabbi ends, it is only the middle for me. Family, study, reading, enjoying, and waiting for the next opportunity to pop up: that is where I will live after next Tuesday, my last day of professional work at HEA.
For 35 years, at this time of year, I would glance up at the moon to see where it was in its cycle. On Tisha B’av, it would be waxing, leading up to its full size on the 15th of the month, which, interestingly enough, was last night. Then it would wane again to disappear for a day as the month of Elul begins. Wax again, wane again, and then there is Rosh Hashanah (which for me always arrived too soon!). Sukkot begins when the moon is full once more.
Everyone knows that when the moon disappears, it is still there, but we just can’t see the sun’s rays reflecting on it temporarily. It is gone for a day, and then a sliver returns, the new month begins, and it's on its way to the great blazing in the sky once more. I see my retirement like that as well. One part of my life is ending, but it is only a day before the light returns, and the cycle continues.
We live in the middle. One part seems to end, but the light returns, and the cycle begins yet again. I so look forward to all of this that is happening in my life.
I end my HEArtbeat today with gratitude. I have had the privilege of being a part of your lives in the good times and hard times and times when you just wanted to be in community with me and others, learning and praying. I have loved it all. Thank you!
I want to wish Rabbi Gruenwald, Laura Intfen, our new clergy team, our professional staff, our lay leaders, and the Congregation only the best in the years to come. The shul is in good hands, and I look forward to its thriving into the future.
Tammy and I will remain in the neighborhood. “Kenahora,” Shai and Rebecca Dollin, and Kivi and Michelle Dollin live close by. Yoni is doing his training in Dayton, Ohio, and we see him often and miss him. Vivi and her fiancée, Ryan Fleisher, live in Chicago but are coming home often now to prepare for their wedding here next Spring. Perhaps one day, all the Dollins will live in Denver, and our Shabbat dinners will be loud and crowded with kids everywhere. With God’s help, may it be so. We have much joy to look forward to.
So I bid you all so long. I know we will see each other often in community in the days ahead.
With gratitude and love,
Rabbi Bruce Dollin
