From the Rabbi

Each November the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College hosts a three-day gathering for prospective students. This past fall’s Institute began on November 9, the day after the American presidential election, which had been preceded by a long season of acrimonious campaigning, and a deteriorating civil discourse. In this article about the event, several biblical figures and narrative threads are referenced that have been on my mind of late. And they relate just as vividly to this moment in Canada, and to our lives, as they did to that moment in the US.

At their welcoming session, students were told of a moment in the story of the biblical Esther. As the Megilah relates, she is inside the household of the crazy and unpredictable ruler, and, having learned that he is planning to annihilate her people, fears confronting him. Dean Elsie Stern reminded the prospective rabbinical students – in paraphrasing Esther 4:14 – “Maybe it is just for a time like this that you have arrived where you are.”

This is a phrase, and a passage, that has come up again and again for me in a variety of situations – personal, professional and political. Indeed, it arose when I reflected on the personal and the political last November here.

Who knows, indeed, when each one of us can play a critical role, in a critical position, at a critical moment. It’s a psychological as well a theological query. We’re invited to probe, to seek to understand, to make sense of an otherwise random or hard-to-fathom circumstance.

My colleague Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herman led a session at the Institute that looked at Judaism’s complicated view toward the idea of resistance. Her understanding of resistance in the Jewish tradition revolves around maintaining a strong community, directly confronting wrongdoing and trying to change hearts through dialogue.

So whether you are beside a neighbour whose life, background or views differ from yours – and I am not merely referencing a supportive inclination – or beside a loved one in a hospital room, the invitation this verse offers is for each of us to heighten our awareness of what we can leverage in our lives, with the capacities we possess, and with the courage we can muster. For, who knows …

- Rabbi Liz