Vision Statement

GO FORTH TO BECOME A BLESSING As I join the tradition of our rabbis, I seek to interpret Torah for our age, enact the best of Jewish teaching, and care for the spiritual needs of our people. In your synagogue, together we can create a space for personal growth, communal cohesion, moral refinement, and transcendent moments. ***

The first three verses of Lech Lecha, the founding call of our ancestor Abraham, help to characterize my past and inspire within me a vision for the future.

GO FORTH

ָ‫שׁר אַ ְראֶ ךּ‬ ֶ ֲ‫ל־ה ָא ֶרץ א‬ ָ ֶ‫וּמבֵּ ית ָא ִבי א‬ ִ ‫מּוֹלַד ְתּ‬ ְ ‫וּמ‬ ִ ‫ֹאמר יי אֶ ל־אַ ְב ָרם לֶ לְ ֵמאַ ְר ְצ‬ ֶ ‫וַיּ‬

Adonai said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your birthplace, your parent’s house, to the land that I will show you.

“I want to be the next Bill Gates,” I declared in the Aspirations section of my fifth-grade yearbook.

“I will study Spanish, guitar, farming, and backpacking in Argentina,” I announced as my study abroad.

“I am conducting global economics research in Thailand,” I published in my college graduation profile.

“I am leaving for Israel to immerse in Jewish study and community,” I said as I set out for the rabbinate.

From a young age, I have felt a call to go forth, to explore the far-reaching corners of our world, of intellectual life, of culture and people. M'lo chol ha'aretz k'vodo, God’s glory fills the whole world. Each moment offers potential for growth. As Ben Zoma says in Pirkei Avot, every person has wisdom to teach.

I love learning languages in order to open up new conversations and cultural exchange. I cherish studying musical instruments; playing them allows me to connect to the universal human spirit. I pursue immersive travel in order to experience human life in its diverse manifestations: rich and poor, religious and secular, old and young, familiar and foreign.

Though Abraham was asked to go forth and never return, I eventually discovered that my lech lecha mission could be in harmony with the deep love and appreciation I have always had for my Jewish roots. Within Judaism there exists interminable depths of intellectual inquiry, cultural diversity, musical tradition, and spiritual practice. I became inspired to explore these depths within the Jewish community that nurtures and grounds me. ***

BECOME A GREAT NATION

‫גַדּלָה ְשׁ ֶמ ו ְֶהיֵה ְבּ ָרכָה‬ ְ ֲ‫וְאֶ עֶ ְשׂ לְ גוֹי גָּדוֹל וַאֲ בָ ֶרכְ וַא‬

I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and it shall be a blessing.

Our tradition has much to teach about what defines a great nation, a great people. Build the biggest tower in the land? No. Act with only self-interest in mind? No. Protect the orphan and the widow? Yes. Create social services for the community? Yes. Join together in song and ritual, teaching and learning, celebration and mourning? Yes. I find my greatest satisfaction helping communities pursue these goals—planning uplifting and resonant worship, sitting with congregants to prepare for a funeral, preaching about the issues of the day, teaching the insights of our tradition. I have had the privilege of contributing in these ways to two synagogues that share a common set of values yet differ greatly in size and situation.

TOBIAS DIVACK MOSS — VISION STATEMENT — PAGE 1 OF 2

As the sole staff member of North Fork Reform Synagogue, I was tasked with both caring for congregants during difficult moments and facilitating their most joyous occasions and holidays. These two facets came together when a Bar Mitzvah child’s mental health issues and challenging family dynamics jeopardized the success of his upcoming ceremony. By consulting with mentors, thoughtful planning, and holding multiple conversations with family members, I ensured that the family would be able to fully celebrate this important and sacred milestone.

Currently, I serve as a Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellow at B’nai Jeshurun (BJ) of New York City.

This synagogue exists at the major crossroads of Judaism, balancing traditional and progressive outlooks, engaging with political and social issues, and playing a prominent role within American and international Jewish life. Partnering with many on their staff of 50+ personnel, I have found significant ways to contribute beyond my pulpit responsibilities. I co-lead the newly reconstituted 20s/30s community, teach weekly Torah study, counsel conversion students, and strengthen BJ’s effectiveness on social media.

Within the synagogue and more broadly, the teachings of the 20 th century thinker Mordecai Kaplan help orient my philosophy around Jewish life. We are part of the Jewish civilization, a phenomenon that includes not only its worship and sacred texts, but also the arts, languages, and folkways of its people. As a rabbi, I see my role as enhancing our civilization within all these domains.

My capstone project exemplified this notion. I explored the legacy of the Israeli folksinger Tova Ronni, my late grandmother. Tova was among the first to bring Israeli culture to America. I studied the religious and political content of her songs, interviewed her peers, studied Yiddish at YIVO, and worked with archivists to process her recordings and professional papers. Finally, I produced a collaborative multi-media concert and exhibit about Tova’s life and the impact of Israeli folk music on the American Jewish experience. My greatest passions are alive in this project and in all the synagogue work I pursue: music, language, Judaism, Israel, and family. ***

BRING BLESSING TO ALL

‫וּמ ַקלֶּלְ ָאאֹ ר וְנִ ְב ְרכוּ ְב כֹּל ִמ ְשׁ ְפּחֹת ָהאֲדָ ָמה‬ ְ ‫וַאֲ בָ ֲרכָה ְמבָ ְרכֶי‬

I will bless those who bless you and curse him that curses you; through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

The notion that Jews have a role to play in the betterment of the entire world is a core thread throughout our tradition. However, at times history has played a cruel hand against us. There have often been forces—external and internal—that urge us to circle the wagons, close our gates, and care exclusively about our own. Reform Judaism has taken the bold stance that we must not give in to such forces. We can, we must, bring blessing to the entire world—Jews and non-Jews, the committed and the unaffiliated, the privileged and the disenfranchised.

Our world is in need of blessing. The tides of change sweeping human society are profound— politically, socially, environmentally, technologically, and theologically. The bet k’nesset, the synagogue—our beloved idiosyncratic study-house, meeting-place, and prayer-space—is Judaism’s most adaptive and eternal institution. Whatever challenges are on the horizon, Jews and those among us will gather to face life together, bound as we are through our sacred texts, our history, our rituals, and our dreams of a more perfect tomorrow.

Our tradition tells us that two imperfect humans, Abraham and Sarah, responded to the highest possible call by setting forth to initiate an ethical, faithful, joyous, and creative people. Aleinu, it is upon us to hear that call for our time, to continue the journey that our ancestors began all those years ago.

TOBIAS DIVACK MOSS — VISION STATEMENT — PAGE 2 OF 2