Rabbi's Bi-Monthly Message
May/June 2018
There are special yet daunting moments in our lives when we stand, dizzy, right at the confluence of the end and the beginning.
During the ten years that I served as a campus rabbi, the month of June meant only one thing. A quarter of our students were about to mark the end of their time at the college with a ceremony variously known as graduation or commencement. Graduation marked the end of their studies and commencement announced the beginning of the rest of their lives. On that same day they were required to move out of campus housing. Literally, they were leaving four years of their lives behind.
In recent years this season has acquired a different but similar flavor for me. Annually at this time I am approaching the end of my work at one congregation and the beginning of my work at the next. For me, it is the ending part that is most difficult. At the end of June, I will be leaving Haverhill and Temple Emanu-El and all of you. It has been a wonderful, enriching, nourishing year for me, and I hope that has been the case for all of you as well. I will miss you very much.
The end of June is also a commencement for all of us. I will begin the next phase of my rabbinate. You will begin what I hope will be a year of growth as you enter the next phase of Jewish life at Temple Emanu-El.
Thank you for sharing your lives with me this year.
Wishing you joy and celebration and growth in 5779 and all the years that follow,
Rabbi Ilene Bogosian
During the ten years that I served as a campus rabbi, the month of June meant only one thing. A quarter of our students were about to mark the end of their time at the college with a ceremony variously known as graduation or commencement. Graduation marked the end of their studies and commencement announced the beginning of the rest of their lives. On that same day they were required to move out of campus housing. Literally, they were leaving four years of their lives behind.
In recent years this season has acquired a different but similar flavor for me. Annually at this time I am approaching the end of my work at one congregation and the beginning of my work at the next. For me, it is the ending part that is most difficult. At the end of June, I will be leaving Haverhill and Temple Emanu-El and all of you. It has been a wonderful, enriching, nourishing year for me, and I hope that has been the case for all of you as well. I will miss you very much.
The end of June is also a commencement for all of us. I will begin the next phase of my rabbinate. You will begin what I hope will be a year of growth as you enter the next phase of Jewish life at Temple Emanu-El.
Thank you for sharing your lives with me this year.
Wishing you joy and celebration and growth in 5779 and all the years that follow,
Rabbi Ilene Bogosian