On Friday night, April 8,
2016, my Temple Beth Shalom, Needham, MA (where I am the Emeritus) celebrated
my 50th year in the rabbinate with a special Sabbath service. In my response to
various speeches, I shared with the congregation the following words:
I have had two major existential
crises in my life. The first one occurred when I was in high School in
Istanbul, Turkey. I must have been in my early teens when I realized that I was
not growing taller. When I complained about it to my French teacher, she, a little
old lady that she was, told me, “You measure height from the shoulders up.”
That was a revelation to me. From her words I derived the lesson that if I
wanted to be successful in life I needed to develop my mind. So, I committed
myself to my studies and did very well in High School. In fact, I became the
valedictorian of my class.
The second crisis happened in
law school (again in Istanbul) when I realized that I wanted to do something
else than practicing business law. What shall I do? I was very much influenced
by my father who was a good Hebraist and an accomplished structural engineer. I
was not good at math. My brother, on the other hand, was the brain of the
family, and not surprisingly he became an electrical engineer. I was good at humanities, and needed to find
an avenue for myself. So, with the help of a neighbor who was a liberal Rabbi, my
mother’s unswerving love and my father’s passion for Jewish studies, I decided
to become a Reform Rabbi in the USA, even though I grew up in an Orthodox Jewish
environment. I must been a rebel even then.
I entered the Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Cincinnati, Ohio) in 1961 with a great
enthusiasm for my newly elected profession. Looking back, I must say that I
have been very fortunate. I took a few calculated risks in life. I married a
wonderful woman, Ines; I carefully chose the University of Pennsylvania for my
graduate school; was thrilled when I became the father of two wonderful
children, Daniel and Deborah, and am now grateful to have four grandchildren,
Ariella and Dalia, Avi and Talya, who fill me with joy. I was particularly
happy to become the Rabbi of great synagogues, first in Buenos Aires, then in
Glencoe, Ill, and finally at Beth Shalom, in Needham, MA (suburb of Boston) where
I spent 23 productive years of my life. It was in Needham that I really learned
how to become a Rabbi in the full sense of the word. Through the help of many
of my wonderful past presidents, I was able to put Beth Shalom on the national
map, and made sure that Jewish knowledge was based on solid foundation and
liberal thinking. I am now thrilled to see the growth of our temple under the
rabbinic leadership of Rabbis Perlman and Markley. I can’t wait to see our new
building (now under construction) in the Fall of 2016.
Now that I am 77 years old, I
have short-term projects. I am looking forward to Ariella’s confirmation this
coming June, Avi’s Bar Mitzvah next April, 2017, Dalia’s Bat Mitzvah in Feb. of
2018, and then Talya’s Bat Mitzvah…she is still 8 years old and we don’t have a
date yet. I also plan to continue to teach at Framingham State University. It
gets me out of the house (Ines is happy about it) and allows me to do what I
love best, namely, teaching. Personally, I am now looking at age 80. If I live
to be that old, I will set up further short-term projects.
In the meantime, I enjoy the
life Ines and I have together, love spending time with my grandchildren here in
the Boston area, playing soccer with Avi and acting as a student in Talya’s imaginative
class.
I enjoy studying with my rabbinic
colleagues on Monday morning, helping my adopted synagogue in Barcelona, Spain,
as well as writing, blogging, lecturing and teaching at different places, and
doing some traveling to interesting places around the world.
Life is a journey, taken step
by step. And I have been among the luckiest people in the world who has had the
opportunity to do what I love best.
Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.
April 11, 2016
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