Induction Address: Response from Rabbi Debbie Young Somers
16th October 2021 EHRS
Whenever I have the privilege of actually being in the same service as Mark (we are usually busy running different things!) I learn more about the best of the rabbinate, and I can honestly say it is a huge honour to join and serve you all as a community, and one of the greatest blessings to do it alongside Rabbi Goldsmith. Thank you for today and thank you for your collegiality and friendship.
Shabbat Lech Lechah was traditionally the time the Leo Baeck College sent us as students out into communities around the country to tell the story of our journey into the Rabbinate. The first time I did this I was sent to Finchley Progressive, where I was warmly welcomed by Rabbi Mark Goldsmith. My final year as a student in 2008-9 was spent on this very bimah, being mentored by Rabbi Smith, who I am so grateful to for joining us today, and the beloved late Rabbi Kraft. Both helped form me in those final months of training, and yet I’m not sure anything can fully prepare you for the journey of walking the road into the rabbinate, a road that has rarely been straight, but where I have always felt honoured to tread.
For seven years before joining the EHRS team, I worked at Reform Judaism, supporting communities all over the country with anything and everything to do with education. It was incredible to learn about the breadth and depth of what goes on in our diverse congregations, and to support the deepening of Jewish learning around the country. But I was missing something that has always been core to my motivation as a rabbi. I wanted to be walking the journey of life with people. Just as Abraham and Sarah set out on their journey, unsure of what they would find, life is so often about navigating a route through both the expected and the unexpected, and as a Rabbi it has been at times a pleasure, at times a privilege, to bring meaning, comfort and joy to those moments.
Beginning here in April 2020 wasn’t, as Mark has already said, quite the start any of us had expected. We had been thrown into a world full of fear, grief, and for Gary, Eliana, Michah and I, the joy of home school was added into the mix. Building those opportunities to walk with you all on the journey looked rather different in lock down than they had 4 months earlier, in the middle of a busy Sunday lunch time at a packed Limmud when Jeremy had phoned to offer me the role here. Being with 2,500 other Jews now seems like a distant dream (perhaps even a nightmare for some). But we found a way. I have often misquoted the philosopher Martin Buber this year and I shamelessly do so once again – he said that when two people meet, God is in the electricity that flows between them. In the darkest depths of the lockdown, it was the electricity (with God in it) and technology that kept us all connected and able to support one another. It wasn’t what we had imagined it would be, but the creativity and care that was implemented by so many around the community made me feel so grateful to have landed in the right home. I’m sure we made mistakes. But together we have walked onwards, and while we are not out the other side yet, we have already learnt so much about ourselves – just as Abraham and Sarah learnt on the journey to be more fully themselves.
I want to commit today to always learning with you. In my interfaith work I often have to correct folk who call us ‘Reformed Jews’. We aren’t Reformed, we are Reform – it is a constant work in progress. It is not a destination, but a path we tread, continually responding to the world around us, as Jews always have done. As we walk the path of life together, we will grow and learn together, and it is really my privilege to travel with you. And so I thought I would close these rambling words with the words of the travellers prayer – preparing us for the journey ahead, and whatever it might bring, and so we turn to page 413 in the Siddur.
