Rabbi's Messages

A Great Big Family (or, "Why I am Shaving My Head")

on Monday, 27 January 2014.

RABBI'S MESSAGE FOR FEBRUARY 2014

In the Talmud it teaches, “Anyone who saves a single life is considered to have saved an entire world" (Tractate Sanhedrin 37a). This statement speaks to the high value that Judaism placed on the worth of each individual. There is no higher action in our tradition than Pikuach Nefesh – Saving a Life. And there is no greater sorrow than seeing one’s child become ill. But, as we know, that world is not always fair.

Sometimes, our Reform movement rallies around one of its own in a time of need. We see this, certainly at a congregational level, when shivas are organized and meals are arranged. And we see it at the North American level as well. Last fall, thousands of Reform Jews – including some from Kol Ami - came to the support of young Ethan Kadish, who was struck by lightning at URJ Camp GUCI (the camp where our own Dawn Bernstein caught the songleading bug). As part of a Reform congregation and a Reform camp, we see Ethan and his family as part of our extended “URJ family.”

Over the last year as well, the Reform Rabbinical community has also rallied around the family of the young man known as “Superman Sam.”

Superman Sam is the 8-year-old son of Rabbis Phyllis and Michael Sommer of Chicago. (They were ordained a few years ahead of me from the Hebrew Union College; we overlapped one year in Cincinnati.) In May 2012, Sammy was diagnosed with Leukemia. In December 2013, he passed away. The eighteen months in the middle were eloquently and heartbreakingly recorded at a blog that his parents created. They shared their pain, their struggle, their anger, and their loss with their extended Jewish family and with the world. If you have not taken a look at this powerful and deeply human blog, it is worth a bit of your time.

Sam Sommer’s life ended late last year, but with his life, he inspired a great mitzvah, known as “36 Rabbis Shave for the Brave.” Several dozen rabbis (actually far more than 36!) from all over North America have agreed to shave their heads at this year’s Reform rabbinical conference in March, in order to raise money for childhood cancer research. If you want to take a look at my page (with my “before” picture), you’ll find more information about the project and the donations. Just click here.

Full disclosure: This is not an official Kol Ami project. It is something that I am participating in along with a number of my colleagues from around the continent. Donations will not be funneled through the URJ, but they will go toward research that may help the Superman Sams of the future. Because “anyone who saves a single life is considered to have saved an entire world.”
L’shalom,
Rabbi Micah Streiffer