Dear Friends,

I look forward to Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur still inspirited by the joy of June’s Gala.  The celebration proved once again that we are a congregation that both prays well and plays well.  We not only bring ourselves fully to holiday observances, to study, to life cycle events, and to performing mitzvot, but we know how to have a good time, too. Though I served as the focus of the evening, seen through my eyes, the evening was all about you – those who planned the event, those who were in attendance, those who contributed to the tribute book (which I read over and over again), those who sent notes, baked, phoned, and those who support this great enterprise of the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore by contributing time and/or money.

I summed up my feelings about you all and about the last thirty-four of the forty years of my rabbinate here at RSNS as follows:  “I dreamed a dream once that has become my reality, a reality that is far richer and deeper and broader and more fulfilling and more wondrous than I could have ever imagined, and it’s all because of you, because you let me in to be with you in your midst.  Founders present and remembered, builders here and missed, Willow Streeters, Plandomers, treasured colleagues, synagogue personnel, teachers, and students, thank you all.  Thank you, thank you for this Promised Land of ours, for the past many years, and for the decade to come.”

I look forward to living that dream with you once again when we gather for the Holidays a fortnight from now.

Wishing you all a healthy, prosperous and good New Year. 

I am, as always, warmly,

Lee

P.S. For a full text of my address, “Forty Years in the Rabbinate,” use this link.