From Time Magazine:
If there’s a fast track for members of the clergy, Rabbi Naomi Levy was on it. She was in the first class of women admitted to study to become rabbis at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the first female Conservative rabbi to lead a congregation on the West Coast. By July 2001, she was a published author, lecturing around the U.S., teaching rabbinical students and counseling. She was also happily married with an 8-year-old son, Adi, and a 6-year-old daughter, Noa. Then came the phone call that overturned everything. During a festive Sabbath dinner, Noa’s doctor called to say that Levy’s daughter had a rare, fatal degenerative disorder called ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T). What happened next is the subject of Levy’s moving new book, Hope Will Find You: My Search for the Wisdom to Stop Waiting and Start Living. TIME spoke to the rabbi about her daughter’s condition, how it challenged Levy’s faith and how she found new sources of strength.
I imagine that some people think that members of the clergy have no problems themselves.
Yes, I think there’s an assumption that all is well. I think that part of it is that we see our parents as strong or as perfect or that their role is to help us. It’s very rare that a child will say to a parent, “Is everything O.K.?” because we fall into a comfort zone assuming that everything is O.K. with our parent. So I think part of it is that kind of projection.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2023874,00.html#ixzz12THQlBT0
Join Rabbi Naomi Levy for a book signing, reading, celebration and dessert on Sunday evening Oct. 17 at 7pm at Barnes and Noble (Third St. Promenade).RSVP: {encode=”return@nashuva.com” title=”return@nashuva.com”}.
