Opinion

By now, many of you have heard of my intention to retire from my position as Rabbi of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills. The purpose of this article is not to reflect on my years in the rabbinate or the community. I will save that, bli neder, for another time. Rather, I would like to focus on an observation from the perspective of one who is at the dusk of his rabbinic career.

In B’reishis (32:5), Yaakov Avinu instructs his angels to relate to his brother Eisav: “To my lord to Eisav, so said your servant Yaakov: I have sojourned with Lavan [Laban, in English] and have lingered until now.” Rashi notes the Hebrew word “garti” for “I have sojourned” has the numerical equivalent of 613, the number of mitzvos contained in the Torah. The message Yaakov is conveying, explains Rashi, is that although I was living with my father-in-law Laban, I kept faithful to the Torah and did not learn from his wicked ways.

The old saying goes… “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.” In fact, I first saw that on a certain service vehicle years ago in Woodridge, New York. It struck me then that these people were so right. It makes no difference what you do in life; what is important is how you treat others. But…it’s still nice to feel important.

I feel like I’m going back to the bad old days – like getting into those political arguments about Trump.

Кosh HaShanah is upon us. It is a time to pause. To reflect. To change. Although Rosh HaShanah is really the time that we proclaim Hashem’s kingdom over the universe, we also must take stock of where we fit in as a nation and as individuals.

 My father zt”l had a cousin with whom he was extremely close named Moishe Schonfeld z”l. Reb Moishe, who lived in Tel Aviv following World War II, was about as Gerrer chasid as you can get. His wife Malka a”h was the granddaughter of the Imrei Emes zt”l, the sainted Gerrer Rebbe during World War II. He was the baal Shacharis during the Yamim Nora’im in the Ger beis midrash in Yerushalayim for decades and had a very sharp wit.