Rabbi on the Road

In 2016, at the age of 62, I received Smicha (Rabbinic Ordination) from the Aleph Ordination Program of the Jewish Renewal Movement. This is my third career, having formerly worked as a Spanish teacher and for many years as a Clinical Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist, skills which stand me in good stead as a Rabbi.

As a Rabbi I work in many different areas, with many kinds of people. The abiding theme that threads through all the work I choose to do is that of service to others, deep ecumenism and tikkun olam, repairing the world.

While in Seminary, I started a small congregation, called Or HaLev (Light of the Heart) Jewish Renewal Community, which is located in Morris County, New Jersey.  We are a wonderful close-knit community that has been together for eight years now.

However, my sole focus has never been just to serve my congregation. For many clergy professionals, serving that small community would have been enough (Dayenu!). But God has called me to serve the Jewish and multi-faith world in many different ways. And so, I have truly become a “rabbi on the road” serving many diverse communities in a variety of ways.

My different “jobs” form a rich tapestry of many colorful and varied strands. I am blessed to be able to serve the world in so many ways. And each place I serve is so important to me and helps define who I am.

One of these places is Chai Mitzvah, where I am blessed to be part of the team of Chai Mitzvah professionals. I work in the areas of outreach and education, facilitating Virtual Mussar classes in a Zoom room to members of the Chai Mitzvah community all over the country. Our network is growing and the learning experience is so rich! Together we study text and engage in meaningful dialogue about the values needed to live an ethical Jewish life and how to create a more balanced life for ourselves.

When I am not serving as Rabbi of Or HaLev or teaching for Chai Mitzvah, I teach Pastoral Counseling at my alma mater, the Aleph Ordination Program, a virtual and in-residence Seminary that trains future rabbis, cantors, spiritual directors and rabbinic pastors all around the world. It is an honor and a privilege to work with future clergy professionals at the institution where I received my professional education and was ordained.

Another very important part of my life is my interfaith work. Currently, I work with a significant number of churches, several mosques, a convent, and several large universities, educating their members about Judaism and engaging in meaningful interfaith dialogue with them.

For the past 6 years, I’ve been volunteering as co-chair, along with a Muslim colleague, of a chapter of the national organization called Sisterhood of Salaam-Shalom. The Sisterhood of Salaam-Shalom is a grassroots non-profit organization with over 8,000 Muslim and Jewish women in 170 chapters, as well as members at large, across North America. Our mission is to build relationships between Muslim and Jewish women and teenage girls so that when either of our groups is targeted, we have allies who are there by our sides to stand with us against hate.

The Jewish value of tikkun olam, repairing the world, is a value I live by, and fuels my service to the world. It is a value that other faiths embrace as well. My tikkun olam work which I initially started to do with my congregation and now has expanded to include working with other faiths, centers around feeding the homeless and those in need. For the past eight years, since I founded Or HaLev, we have fed the hungry every month. We have not missed a month in eight years! We gather at each other’s homes to prepare 200 meals each time which we deliver to a local homeless shelter. For the past 3 years our Muslim friends have come and joined us in the project. We have now expanded to include the “Thousand Meal Project” in which we bag specific nutritious grains and seasonings to distribute to food banks, social service agencies, and universities for distribution to those who are food insecure. When the bags’ contents are combined with boiling water, each yields 10 individual servings.

Over the years, my tapestry has gown, covering more and more people. My goal is to continue adding more and more strands, more colors, to this beautiful tapestry that represents my rabbinate.

By seeking out a variety of venues in which I can use my personal gifts and resources to serve others, I can work constantly to build relationships between and among faith groups (the calling of my personal rabbinate) and thus help repair the world I love. This brings me spiritual and personal joy and fulfillment and brings meaning to my life, on a daily basis. For this, I am ever grateful to the Source of All Life.

Rabbi Debra Smith can be reached at rebdeb@chaimitzvah.org

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