Rabbi Howard Morrison

In Parshat Chukkat, we read the deaths of Aaron and Miriam. In addition, we are informed about the impending death of Moses in that he will die before entry into the Promised Land. We recall Gedolim, great ones, in the weekly Torah portion.

For the Beth Emeth community, this week we recall another Gadol - Great one. This past Monday night and Tuesday (June 30-July1) marked the Yahrzeit of our beloved Rabbi Joseph Kelman, of righteous blessed memory. The corresponding Hebrew date was the fifth of Tammuz. In Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of the Sages, we are taught, "Know from whence you have come, and in what direction you are heading." A knowledge and appreciation of one's past are vital for charting one's course of direction for the present and the future. This lesson is true in our personal lives and is true for our collective life as a synagogue community.

As we consider the seventy years of Beth Emeth, Rabbi Kelman served as our spiritual leader for forty years and as rabbi emeritus for an additional ten years before his untimely passing. As an ordained Orthodox rabbi, he understood and knew how to navigate a Traditional Conservative synagogue. On one occasion, soon after I arrived here, he once remarked to me that if there was a new book on the modern denominations of Judaism as they stood in the twenty-first century, he and I would occupy the blank page which separates the chapters of Conservative and Orthodox.

 I also remember that when the first changes under my rabbinate regarding women's participation were introduced in 2004, permitting a woman to sit on the Bima and to chant a Haftarah, he did not object. He appreciated that I informed him in advance of those decisions going public. He agreed that Halakha (Jewish law) was not being trespassed even though these were not normative practices all the years he served as senior rabbi.

Rabbi Kelman was ahead of his time in so many areas. Perhaps the most well know was his progressive stance on special needs in the Jewish community. His vision and leadership brought to fruition Reena, Ezra-Kadima, Shearim, and much more. He developed appropriate and meaningful formats for Bnai Mitzvah celebrations. Much of what we take for granted today was unprecedented and inspired by him in the 1960's and 70's.

As we commemorated Rabbi Kelman's Yahrzeit this week, and as we celebrate Beth Emeth' seventieth year, "let us know from whence we have come, and in what direction we are heading."

Yhi Zichro Baruch - May the memory of Ha'Rav Chaim Yosef ben Ha'Rav Tzvi Yehuda be a blessing.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Howard Morrison