And now, services

I did a dvar torah, read torah...and now I lead services. Of course it's on one of the craziest days ever...I literally wake up at 6 am and go until I get on the plane at 9 pm. Great, I know. Especially bc I'm posting this at 1 am. Anyway.

I was very much opposed to leading services. I'm just not feeling it. I obviously had no choice. One thing led to another and I decided to use a different prayer book than the crappy sampler of the new Reform prayerbook that we use (gates of grey for any of you that it makes sense to). Then i decided to change everything up...and made the theme of my service "Change" - there are various short readings that I wrote. but I think there is one in specific that I should share.

Throughout my planning process I knew in the back of my head that it was meaningful to me that I was leading services just two days before Jenny's bat mitzvah. For awhile I had considered making her my theme. And then tonight, mid temper tantrum, I wrote this. It could use editing here and there, but that's not the point.

For our thursday services one of the older professors, who has been there forever, usually tells us about people who are important to the college community whose yartzeit we are observing. It's weird, yet cool. But the dude is away this week.... My first sentence is in reference to him - but it will make no sense to any of you - so i pick up on the 2nd sentence.

He is not here today so I would like to take this moment to share a story. As many of you know I am getting on an airplane in a few hours to fly to NY for the weekend. I haven’t really told anyone the significance of this bat mitzvah that I am going to. Jenny is a 13 year old wonder. She was adopted 10 years ago from the Ukraine and I have had the honor of being part of her life and even being changed by her. The thing is, our families have been connected for years. Her brother is one of my best friends – we’ve grown up together. But even before Evan and I were friends, Evan’s sister and my sister were friends – actually, best friends. Sharon and Jill met in kindergarten – an epic meeting and friendship that I’ve heard about my entire life. His sister, Jill sadly died of bone cancer at the age of 11 – over 16 years ago. Jenny never knew her sister Jill. But we all did. And this weekend, as Jenny becomes a bat mitzvah, a simchah we never got to celebrate with Jill, we will all be thinking about both of these girls and what they mean to ours and other families. It isn’t Jill’s yartzeit – it isn’t her birthday – times at which I especially think of her. But we’ll be remembering her and thinking about her. The kaddish is a time that we can remember people – how they changed our lives and helped change us in various ways. I invite you to remember a significant person or people who have touched your life in some way today, as we recite the kaddish together. Please share their names with us.