The Comma

This Saturday, Olivier BenHaim is going to be ordained as a rabbi. I know Olivier most especially through the Bet Alef Interfaith Seder in which our congregation has participated now for five years. Especially when we were first beginning, Olivier was one of the main planners, and we spent hours together talking about details of a feast that I knew almost nothing about. And now Olivier is going to be ordained. What a joy!

A while back I read The New Rabbi, a book by Stephen Fried which documents a large synagogue’s search for someone to replace their beloved, long-serving rabbi, who was retiring. I loved the book, mostly because what that congregation went through sounded so much like what congregations I know go through. Of course that would be true, but still I wondered. Is being a rabbi different from being a pastor?

And that reminds me of how mysterious religious employment can seem. When I was a kid, we used to play at the playground of the Catholic school down the street. I loved our “Hide and Seek” games where I would race through the garden area of the convent. Stashing myself in one of the great hiding places among the bushes there. And as I crouched there, hidden from the “seeker,” I would wonder about the nuns who lived there. What kind of beings were they? (because in my young mind they clearly were not human beings- they seemed so far removed from me.)

Of course, then I grew up and became a “religious professional” myself. Now I get to watch while others puuzzle over what kind of a being I am. Sometimes that is really fun, looking at it from this side. About twenty years ago my income taxes were audited and I’m not sure the IRS guy ever really understood my employment. Women ministers were still rare back then, and he kept calling me “Sister” all the way through. By the way, the audit went just fine. Maybe it was the halo effect.

One of the first blogs I ever heard about (at least one that really caught my attention) was “Real Live Preacher.” If you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to visit the site. This tag on his home page says it all: “I had this funny picture in my head of a freak-show barker shouting, ‘Come see a Real Live Preacher.’” Back when I first learned of the site, it was pretty basic. Just an anonymous, progressive minister answering as honestly as he could questions people might want to ask a preacher but were afraid to (because face-to-face you never know how a preacher might react!)  He got alot of questions from folks who didn’t know much about church, but were curious. He let people in on the mysterious day-to-day life of a real live preacher. Now he has dropped the anonymity (his name is Gordon Atkinson and he is a Baptist preacher in Texas), written some books and has quite a developed web presence. Back when I first looked at his stuff, though, he was just making good use of that general mystery about “real live preachers.”

All of this brings me back to Olivier’s ordination. As much as I now know about being a pastor, I do look forward to comparing notes with a new rabbi. And I also want to refer you all to his story, which he has been telling at the Bet Alef website. One of the funniest parts to me was when he and his wife moved to Seattle from Israel, and began to climb the corporate ladder. He described himself as a “culinary Jew” who had found a spiritual path in the practice of Yoga and Tai Chi. Here is what he said about the next step of his journey:

It was during that time that Amy came upon a flyer advertising a series of Jewish-Buddhist dialogues between a Buddhist nun and a local rabbi . . . I was resolute to attend one of these dialogues to watch the Buddhist nun teach a lesson in spirituality to the poor rabbi. That “poor rabbi” was Rabbi Ted Falcon who, that night, rekindled for me the quasi-extinguished flame of my Jewish spiritual path and changed my life forever. . . . I switched my Sanskrit meditation mantra to a Hebrew one, delved into Jewish mysticism and rediscovered Torah as a healing spiritual path of awakening.

Any of us who know Ted Falcon just have to smile at that story. Olivier, my prayers are with you on Saturday, and beyond. I can hardly wait to hear more of the mysterious day-to-day life of a real live rabbi.