Thanks are due to the Berkshire Jewish Voice, and to David Verzi, for this lovely article about Reb Rachel!
Photo by David Verzi.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Light and Heat
By David Verzi
published in The Berkshire Jewish Voice, November 1 to December 1 2011 edition
By time honored custom, tradition and calling, a rabbi is sought to serve as a formal beacon of enlightenment and wisdom, this while much of modernity desires and demands that the illuminating insights of spiritual leaders come packaged within relaxed, comfortable, and comforting pew-side warmth.
These words with music, pedagogy with passion, light with heat combinations are no mean magic for a cleric to perform.
Fact is, it’s no trick at all — it’s a feat melded with a gift.
For while the law, liturgy, and lessons that shed light can, through arduous scholarship, be attained for teaching: the heat, if authentic, must be childlike, filled with wonder, and heart-sprung. Read the rest of this entry »
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