2025. 

If we were the Israelites wandering in the desert, 40 years ago, in 1985, we started off as slaves in Egypt. A lot can change in 40 years. In 1985, Rabbi Amy Eilberg became the first female rabbi ordained in the Conservative movement. This year, she and all female rabbis will be honored as part of this historic milestone. 

Change is both sudden and slow. I have had little children ask me, "Can men can be rabbis as well?" as adults ask me, "Did you mean to say you are the rebbetzin?" For the young child, this is all they have ever known, for the adult, even with 40 years of female rabbis in our movement, I am the first one they have met.

As we tip toe into this new year, remember that change is both sudden and slow. It took 40 years for the Israelites to be ready to go into the Holy Land, but for the babies born in year 40, the Holy Land was all they would ever know. Wherever you find yourself journeying this year, know that you are going exactly where you should be going.

Everybody Loves Changes-Rick Lupert

Do not be afraid of going down to Egypt,
for there I will make you into a great nation.
Genesis 45:3

I don’t like change.
I’m even afraid of the next lines of this poem
because they’re uncertain.

(Phew, we made it!)

I remember not wanting to go to Hebrew school
as I liked it better before, when I didn’t
have to go anywhere.

(Turns out I didn’t have a choice and
now look at me, writing Jewish poems
every week like a zealot.)

I remember not wanting to move into
a different house because what was the point
of taking all your things and moving them
when they were perfectly fine where they were?

(Now I have a view and pretend wood floors
and open space and a dysfunctional jacuzzi
and rooms to spare.)

I remember deciding not go back to that
familiar place I had gone to every week for
a couple of decades. A paycheck was at stake
and hella personal connections.

(I no longer taste crow every day which
suits my spiritual vegetarianism.)

My friend always tells me about how
a door closing is immediately followed by
one opening.

(You just have to get there quick enough
so flies and raccoons don’t walk in.)

Change is Egypt.
Change is forgetting what comes after Egypt.
Change may take forty years.
You might have to build a pyramid.
You might need to pack up your things
a number of times.

Do not turn this thing right around.
You are going exactly where
you should be going.

B'Shalom,
Rabbi Chaya Bender