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Rabbis and Their Discontents Parshat Korah 5771

By Rabbi Mark B Greenspan

In honor of Rabbi Nathan Kapner on his 90th

Birthday.

Early Shabbas morning, Chaim awoke as his mother shook him. "Get up! Get up, already! You're

going to be late for shul." "I don’t wanna go to shul," whined Chaim, "I hate shul! Everyone ignores

me and nobody there likes me there! Give me two reasons why I should go!" Chaim's mother

answered, "First, you're 47 years old and second, you're the rabbi!"

Since we're honoring a special member of our congregation this morning, Rabbi Nathan Kapner, I'd

like to ask your indulgence as I reflect for a few moments on what it means to be a Rabbi. It is a thrill

to have Rabbi Kapner in our congregation, as it is to have Cantor Lefkowitz. These are men who have

served the Jewish community and remain honored members of our congregation and community.

I find that as the summer gets closer and things quiet down, I can step back and ask myself what it is

that I do as a rabbi and what it means to serve the Jewish community. I dare say that there is no other

career quite like the rabbinate both in terms of what we do and how we serve the community. The

rabbinate can be a great joy but it can also be a source of angst. If you don’t believe me just read this

week's Torah portion.

Rabbi Kapner can tell you. He served the Jewish community for over fifty years. He was an assistant

chaplain in the military, a religious school principal, and he served as the rabbi of a number of

congregations including the Hillel Hebrew Academy and Synagogue. Rabbi Kapner taught Hebrew

Braille and prepared blind and deaf children for Bar Mitzvah. Being a rabbi is a lifelong passion for

him - he's the real deal, not only a rabbi by profession but by character and disposition. Judaism is his

vocation and avocation. He is the only type of person, I would ever want to serve as my rabbi.

And that is what I love about rabbis. Of course, not all rabbis are so single minded about their careers

but many are. Rabbis are passionate about what they do. They're constantly learning. And despite the

frustrations they face in their professional and personal lives (which they have a hard time separating

from one another) they keep coming back for more - because for rabbis, Torah is as basic to life as the

air they breathe.

In his book, "Have a Little Faith," Mitch Albom speaks about his beloved childhood rabbi, Al Lewis.

When Rabbi Lewis asks Mitch to give his eulogy 'when the time comes,' the author agrees only if

Rabbi Lewis will spend some personal time with him so he can truly get to know him, 'as a person.' Al

Lewis was an extraordinary man - I had the privilege of knowing him and his family. And the man you

meet in this book is truly the man I remember. Rabbi Lewis was fortunate to spend his career in one

congregation - a claim that very few rabbis can make. But that doesn’t mean his career was without its

troubles. Rabbi Lewis tells a story that sums up how many of us feel from to time in the course of our

careers:

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"A salesman knocks on the door. The man who answers says 'I don't need anything today'. The

next day the salesman returns, 'Stay away', he's told. The very next day the salesman is back. The

man yells 'You again! I warned you!' He gets so angry that he spits in the salesman's face. The

salesman smiles, wipes the spit with a handkerchief, then looks to the skies and says, 'It must be

raining.'"

The moral of this story: rabbis are a little naïve - they actually believe that they can change the world.

But I'll tell you a secret: when we stop believing that we can change the world, our congregants stop

believing in us.

One of the reasons that I become somewhat reflective about the rabbinate at this time of year has to do

with the parshiot we read from the Torah in the late spring and early summer. The book of Numbers is

all about religious leadership and its discontents. In chapter after chapter we confront rebellions,

revolts and complaints. Moses is frustrated to the point of giving up. The people repeatedly complain

about being forced to live in the wilderness. They speak lovingly of Egypt, as a land "flowing with

milk and honey!" The Israelites revolt following the visit of the spies to the land of Canaan. Even his

brother and sister complain about his leadership style. And then, in this week's parashah, Moses faces

his most serious challenge. Korah, a fellow Levite, challenges Moses and Aaron: "You've gone too

far," he says, "the whole community is holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Why do you

raise yourselves above the Lord's community?"

This is not just any leader Korah is talking about; it's Moses! The man who confronted Pharaoh; the

prophet who carried out the ten plagues; the guy who split the Red Sea. He is the man who spoke to

God at Mount Sinai after the people said, "You speak for us and we'll obey; let not God speak to us,

lest we die!" How could Korah possibly compare the people to Moses, the man of God?

Yet there's a part of us that sympathizes with Korah. We live in a society that values democracy and

celebrates the right to self expression. We believe that God is present in every person and that rabbis

(and cantors) put on their pants one leg at a time just like the rest of us! So we often find ourselves

conflicted: We want to think of clergy as special and yet we also believe in the power of the people and

the importance of each individual.

Of course, Korah had ulterior motives in this rebellion, as did the other participants. Their concern was

not for the community as a whole as much as it was for their own self-aggrandizement. Korah's

rebellion was a play for power rather than an honest desire to create a community of faith. Moses, after

all, had once told Joshua that nothing would give him greater pleasure than to share his position with

others. "Are you jealous on my account? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the

Lord put His spirit upon them!"

Sometimes I think that rabbis should come with a user's manual. It would be entitled, "How to Get the

Most Out of Your Rabbi." The introduction would go something like this:

Congratulations! Your congregation is now in possession of a new rabbi. We hope you will have years

of benefit and inspiration from this model. However, to get the most out of your rabbi we would like to

offer a few simple suggestions.

1. Your rabbi does not belong to you. He/she is on loan to your congregation. First and foremost, the

rabbi belongs to his/her family. Please respect the time he or she needs to be a good husband or wife,

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parent and child. A rabbi is first and foremost a role model - and if the rabbi can't take care of herself

and her household how can you expect her to take care of yours?

2. Remember that rabbi means teacher - that’s why you've hired him. There's nothing that a rabbi does

that you can't do for yourself. We have found that one of the greatest obstacles to the rabbinate is when

the congregation thinks the rabbi is indispensible and the rabbi starts believing them. Instead of

depending on your rabbi to practice Judaism for you, learn how to be a Jew independent from him. The

best rabbis enable; they don’t infantilize their congregants.

3. Remember that a rabbi's effectiveness can’t be measured by the number of hours they work. Their

battery tends to run down when you don’t allow them time to recharge. This means not only time to

relax but time to increase his or her knowledge. Rabbis also tend to be overachievers. If you allow

them, they'll work seventy or eighty hours a week. Therefore it's not enough to give them time off -

you have to insist that they take it.

4. Remember that your rabbi doesn’t work for you or your congregation. She serves a higher authority.

You are not always going to like what he or she has to say. Her job is to interpret Torah to the best of

her ability and to try and discern what it is God wants from us. You don’t have to agree with your

rabbi but you do have to respect her point of view.

5. Like your congregation, a rabbi's effectiveness can be measured by three standards: Torah study,

Avodah - observance and worship, and Gemilut Hasadim, acts of kindness. Most rabbis tend to favor

one area of Jewish life or another - but a full Jewish life must include all three. These are the things

that make a rabbi, a rabbi. However if a rabbi only does these things because she is a rabbi than she is

not doing her job. They are also the standards that make a Jew, a Jew.

6. Finally, if you don’t know what you want then your rabbi cannot do his job. A congregation must

have a vision of Jewish life - take the time what you want your Jewish life to look like and then

communicate this vision to your rabbi. It will help prevent frustration and confusion.

So Rabbi Kapner, thank you for all your years of service to the Jewish community. Thank you not just

for being a great rabbi but for being a great Jew. And thank you for being a role model as a father and a

husband, as one who not only teaches but lives Judaism, as a caring human being, and as a mensch.

May we continue to learn from you - as we say - ad meah v'esrim - until 120 years old.

Shabbat Shalom