As we enter the month of May, we find ourselves heavily seeped in the season of rebirth. Nature is returning to us with vibrant colors after a winter of cold grayness. As we are experiencing the rebirth of nature outside our Temple walls, we are also celebrating a season of rebirth within the Temple. Not the type of rebirth that says goodbye to something stale, but the type of rebirth that celebrates renewal. May is our Temple’s season of renewal. On Tuesday, May 7th we will gather, as we do every year, for our Congregational Meeting as we thank our outgoing leadership for all that they have done to get us to this moment. In particular, we will thank Daryl Lipkin, our outgoing Temple President, for all his years of service to our Temple. Our Temple has benefited greatly from his involvement and leadership in ways far too numerous to list out on the front page of a bulletin, but in particular I think we are all grateful for the way in which he guided us through the rabbinic transition from Rabbi Miller to myself. I know I am certainly thankful for how the process progressed. I hope you will join me at the Congregational Meeting on May 7th to thank Daryl and all the other Officers and Trustees who are completing their terms on the Board.
Shabbat eve on May 10th will be our moment to celebrate renewal as we install our new slate of Officers and Trustees and hear from our incoming Temple President, David Levine. We have been engaged in this ritual of passing the mantel of leadership down from one President to the next for over a century and a half. David will be our President as we enter our 160th year and it will be a year you don’t want to miss. For the last 160 years our layleaders and clergy have been bound in sacred leadership. It is this successful partnership between lay leadership and the clergy that has enabled our congregational family to evolve and flourish for all this time. It is also the key to our continuation in the decades and centuries to come. I hope you will join me as we celebrate this renewal together and thank God for our ability to reach this new season.
Philip N. Bazeley
