Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz

Parashat Vayechi Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Family Matters Death and life are closer than you think. In our human experience, they are so close that many cultures have created rituals to stave off our fear of death in the darkest of Winter’s days, when the veil between life and death seems thin. Now that I’ve moved to the north of England, I appreciate that impulse all the more so. Every culture has its own way of doing so. The Pagans of yore burnt Yule logs and the Romans enjoyed a week of revelry during Saturnalia. The Midrash and Talmud (Avodah Zarah 8b) state that there’s a link between Chanukkah, the Solstice and a story of Adam, the first Man, who created fire on the darkest day. And then, of course, there is Christmas, a holiday superimposed on older, primordial pagan practices, in which we welcome light and cheer. Christmas and Chanukkah, however, don’t only allow us to light a candle against the dark but also bring us together to enjoy family time. Y...

Parashat Vayigash  Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz  Excavating and Elevating  Being a rabbi is a funny job. Like Joseph, a rabbi is expected to replenish the storehouses of the community. Not literally, of course, but figuratively. Like Joseph, a rabbi is expected to facilitate relationships. Like Joseph, a rabbi is expected to develop a sustainable vision for the future as well as being a ‘ dugma ishit ’, a personal example. We rabbis answer to a Higher Authority, after all, and despite our personal preferences, foibles and failings, are bearers of the crucible of tradition. I love being a rabbi and only two years in, I feel like I could already write a book about my myriad of moving, challenging and sometimes outright bemusing experiences.  Yet there’s one aspect of a rabbi’s life which is most visible: the rabbi as shaliach tzibbur , prayer leader. This is what stereotypically people imagine a rabbi to be: standing here, in the prerequisite ritual garb, lead...