Rabbi Howard Morrison

Thursday was the day after Rosh Hashanah.

Thursday was the observance of the Fast of Gedaliah.

On Thursday, I sadly officiated two funerals, and I joyously sat with two families to discuss upcoming Bnai Mitzvah.

In the wake of a busy day, an uncanny coincidence happened. At one of the funerals, I learned that the deceased was a direct descendant of Rashi.

At one of my Bnai Mitzvah meetings, I learned that the mother of the upcoming Bar Mitzvah was a direct descendant of Rabbi Shlomo Ha'Levi Alkabetz. 

Who was Rashi? Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki lived in France in the eleventh century. He was perhaps the greatest and most prolific commentator on the Torah and the Talmud. In many Yeshivas and day schools, his writings are the first commentaries that young students learn when they are introduced to the interpretive literature on the Torah. For me personally, I was introduced to the writings of Rashi in grade three at the Maimonides Day School in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Who was Rabbi Shlomo Ha'Levi Alkabetz? One of the great Kabbalists and poets of mystical Tzfat in the sixteenth century, he authored L'Cha Dodi, the center piece hymn of the Kabbalat Shabbat service. The union of the Jewish people and the Shabbat bride when we welcome Shabbat is attributed to him. That we actively reach out to accept Shabbat by facing the synagogue door at the end of the song, or by climbing to the top of the mountains in the sixteenth century as dusk settled in Israel on a Friday afternoon, harkens back to Rabbi Shlomo Ha'Levi Alkabetz.

On the day following Rosh Hashanah during a day of Fasting, while interacting with the sadness of funerals and the joy of upcoming Bnai Mitzvah, two great luminaries appeared before me through their descendants. What a way to kick off a new year!

I encourage us to become better acquainted with these great scholars as we begin the new year of 5786.

Shabbat Shalom and Gmar Chatima Tova,

Rabbi Howard Morrison