On Being an Artist-Rabbi
In a television interview shortly before his death, Abraham Joshua Heschel was asked if he had a message for young people. Watching live with my parents, I was a young person at the time, and Heschel seemed to speak directly to me, responding: “Build your life as a work of art.” My rabbinate is an artistic practice. The spiritual community I serve, in its complexity, is a creation under continuous construction, and not just what looks or sounds like fine art is our art, but, through this lens, our Bet Midrash, our Dialogue Project, our delivery of gemilut chesed, are all part of the artwork. At Or Shalom, we are knitting together a congregation integrating new, younger, members with the older members who hold our […]
