As One

By Rabbi Menachem Creditor. Printed February 7, 2012, SeventyFaces.com

Have you ever seen a "flash mob?" (Youtube is full of them.) It is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform a coordinated action, and then disperse. For a brief, fleeting moment, they are one body in motion.

I sat tonight in a packed room with others assembled to mourn the loss of Rabbi Chanan Feld, a dear teacher in our community in Berkeley. The gathering was a manifestation of Chanan's spiritual impact on so many different kinds of people. To my right was a fellow Conservative Rabbi, to my left was the chair of Judaic Studies at UCSF, to his left was a Renewal rabbi, to his left was a Chabad Rabbi. That one row comforted me, and gave me hope that through a life-practice of simple kindness (like Chanan's) we can be reminded that we're truly connected with one another, that we're family. Because there are legitimate things that divide us, that indicate a particular vision for the world. But we all rose as one when Chanan's family entered the room. We stood together to honor them, without considering the different rituals we might each have crafted for the moment. We were standing as one body, with one heart.

I remember being at a U2 concert in NYC the month after 9/11, as shattered as the other 20,000 people in attendance. The concert exquisitely wove music and images and dragged pierced our hearts over and over. But one moment remains etched in my memory: During "In the Name of Love," I peeked out through my tears and noticed that everyone in Madison Square Garden was moving their arms and bodies in the same way. I remember being overcome with the experience of witnessing God.

I believe God is more present when more of us feel each other's pain and act as one to heal, as is written in Ecclesiastes: "A multitude of people is God's Glory (Mishlei 14:28)"

Tonight was smaller, but only by visible measurement.

May we find less need for healing tomorrow and still stand as one.

Jerusalem5767b

Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Joined: September 20, 2007

A prolific writer, musician, and leader in the Conservative Movement, Menachem Creditor’s rabbinate has taken him from coast to coast. For the first 5 years of his rabbinate he served as the assistant Rabbi of Temple Israel in Sharon, Massacusets. His work within that community lead to meeting Rabbi David Paskin, with whom Rabbi Creditor created Shirav and recorded two albums. Their album Deeper & Deeper contains the track Olam, which has become a spiritual anthem in the Renewal, Reform, and Masorti world. Rabbi Creditor's first solo album "Within" was released in 2011. Described as “a vocal proponent of gay and women’s rights”, Rabbi Creditor co-founded Keshet Rabbis, the alliance of gay friendly conservative rabbis and recently, Rabbi Creditor became the international co-chair of Rabbis For Women of the Wall. Since becoming Rabbi of Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA in 2007, the synagogue’s membership has swelled, the participatory nature of the synagogue has flourished, and the outreach programs generated, including Bay Area Masorti, which Rabbi Creditor currently chairs, have achieved regional, national, and international recognition. Rabbi Creditor currently serves on the Executive Council of the Rabbinical Assembly, the Board of Trustees of the UC Berkeley Hillel, and on the Rabbinic Advisory Committee of Shalom Bayit. Rabbi Creditor’s writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Forward, The Jewish Week, J. Weekly, The Jewish Advocate, The Boston Globe, Kolot: Voices of CJ, JewsbyChoice.org, Conservative Judaism, and in several Jewish anthologies, including the recently published Paths of Torah. Rabbi Creditor has been called a "power-blogger" and his rabbinate is a constant vehicle for Jewish connection within social media. He blogs at rabbicreditor.blogspot.com.