Sept 2018 Yom Kippur Sermon: Yizkor
The longer someone is gone the further away you might feel from them. Their picture isn’t quite as vivid in your mind, instead of millions of images you keep coming back to just a few glimpses of your person. This can make the passing of time feel scary. We want the pain and hurt to subside, but we don’t want our memories to fade; Their scent of the pillow to diminish; The indent in the chair to fill in. We want to hold on.
This past May I lost a dear friend, classmate and colleague Rabbi Aaron Panken, in small plane crash. Not only was he my friend and has been since our year in Israel in 1986, and my son’s really good friend’s dad but he was the President of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where he was just beginning to realize his vision for the future of the Reform Rabbinate. His passing was a public tragedy, but I know this doesn’t compare to the loss for his family.
Click here to read more