A changing of the guard

As a child I alway had trouble letting go of a teacher at the end of the year. I was sure I could never have another teacher as good as Ruby White, my first grade teacher, wishing I could stay in her class forever. I find that I still cling to a good teacher decades later. And so it was with great reluctance that I said goodbye to our rabbi Toby when she recently moved on from Temple Micah.

I harbored a certain amount of distrust and suspicion over the circumstances of her departure and had already convinced myself that whoever took her place could never fill her shoes in actuality.

Then I showed up at Friday night services last week for the first glimpse of our new rabbi Esther. She’s 35, beautiful, and full of enthusiasm. She instantly remembered my name as she shook my hand, seeming to welcome me as much as I was welcoming her.

Her remarks on the week’s Torah portion were brief but well spoken. As we begin the book of Deuteronomy, she said that it’s all about teaching, as Moses tries to give a crash course in Jewish history to the new generation who are about to cross into the Promised Land. Just as Moses attempted to give them a religious grounding, she said our job today is to try to discover what it means to say “I was at Sinai” when in fact none of us was there. The challenge is to make the Torah’s story our own.

There’s a certain essence of Toby that will never be replaced by Esther, but I am now convinced that at the end of the day I will be equally attached to this new person who has come to teach and lead and console us. Her obvious love of music will also serve her well as she assumes her new role at Temple Micah.

Welcome to Rabbi Esther, Temple Micah’s new reigning queen!