Rabbi Lisa Edwards
Will Korthof, philanthropist, volunteer energy activist, 36
On erev Yom Kippur I received a phone call from the mother of a beloved congregant, Will Korthof, telling me that Will had been killed in a motorcycle accident. It was the day after his 36th birthday.
Giving Voice: Parashat Yitro (Exodus 18:1-20:23)
Someone came to me in tears. “Too much yelling,” he said. “My boyfriend yells at me, my boss yells at me, even my father still yells at me.”
In the family way: Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32)
Word went out from the congregation that a longtime member was nearing the end of her life. She has no partner and no children, but, on the day after Yom Kippur, 17 friends from the congregation came to visit her, including current and former clergy, and grown children she used to baby-sit.
Circumcise your heart: Parashat Ekev (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25)
A friend who works for the federal government wrote recently to say that because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), she was able to add her wife to the family’s insurance plan. “I never thought I would get emotional while on the phone with an insurance company, but I did.”
Torah Portion: Moving toward possibility
Moses is 120 years old when, in this week’s Torah portion, Va’etchanan, he recalls his recent request of God: “I pleaded with the Eternal at that time, saying, ‘O Eternal God, You who let your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country, and the Lebanon’ ” (Deuteronomy 3:23-25).
When your brother will be low: Parashat Behar-Bechukotai (Leviticus 25:1-27:34)
He flopped down on the couch in my study, looking pale, upset. “What is it?” I asked, imagining a bad diagnosis.
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