Dear Jonah,
In a few years, you will be a Rabbi. You are choosing this path at a time when more people need comfort and have lost faith than I can remember in my lifetime.
They all need what I needed when I was five years old. It was just hours after my father had passed away … a Rabbi came to our house, held my hand and told me to not be afraid and that my father was in Heaven with G-d. He gave me the spiritual comfort I needed in a way I could understand. And it made all the difference.
I know that you will be holding many hands and providing comfort, especially those who have lost faith. Faith is a funny thing. It can feel expendable when other seemingly important day-to-day matters crowd it out. But suddenly something earthshaking happens and faith becomes the thing we need most … as happened to me 57 years ago. And then, you will be there, offering a hand, an ear, a shoulder … because you understand, and you care.
I pray that your caring only deepens and that your pulpit wherever it may be and whatever it may look like will be based on that caring.
May you always be a blessing.
With love and pride,
Dad
Jay Sanderson is the President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. www.jewishla.org/podcast
