One Rabbi's Reflection
Posted by Rabbi Menachem Creditor on January 23, 2008 | Tags: Life Reflections
Rabbi's Reflection
© Rabbi Menachem Creditor
I love being a rabbi.
At any given moment, a thousand urgent things can happen. And sometimes I can do some reading. In any interaction, what was casual conversation can explode with profundity. And sometimes heavy conversations are lightened by friendship. Every day is its own experience with unpredictable questions and interpersonal navigation. And sometimes those three things spontaneously lead to the One. When it is a difficult day, it is difficult because it is a reflection of life. And when it is a lighter day, that is life too. Being a rabbi is living life intensely, walking with awareness.
I love being a rabbi because I am supposed to be a rabbi. But it is also so powerful to be a rabbi because anyone can. The conversations I have with people are not hierarchical – they are honest, open-ended reflective conversations, even when I am required to provide an answer. And those very answers are birthed from my soul's weddedness to Torah as lived and learned – and I don't own the totality of this journey. I get to live it, revisit it - and share it - frequently and with newness.
Every intense moment carries something of God, something exquisitely inclusive of both Infinity and mortality. We each are that.
Being a rabbi is being in love.
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Rabbi Menachem CreditorJoined: September 20, 2007 Rabbi Menachem Creditor is the spiritual leader of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. He is the founder and facilitator of ShefaNetwork.org: The Conservative/Masorti Movement Dreaming from Within, co-founder of KeshetRabbis: The Alliance of Gay-Friendly Conservative/Masorti Rabbis, and... Divrei Torah (41) |
