From the Rector …

Depending on how exactly you count, I’ve had close to twenty-two first days of school. I won’t make you do the math, but let’s just say this means that in a supermajority of my Septembers, I’ve strapped on my backpack, stood outside with my parents (or wife!) for the obligatory “first day of school” photo, and then headed off into the unknown amid a flood of tears. (And sometimes I cried, too.)

Well, a new school year’s just begun here in Boston, and the goodbyes have been… a little different. Fewer backpacks, more headphones. Fewer lunchboxes, more Wi-Fi extenders. (Just about the same number of parental tears.)

I’m reminded, as those of us with kids at home become accidental homeschoolers, how central the home is in the Jewish tradition of religious education. For many Jews, the primary place a person learns to be Jewish isn’t a synagogue or a Hebrew school; it’s the home. It’s a tradition found 2,600 years ago in the Book of Deuteronomy: These words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. Recite them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. (Deuteronomy 6:6–7 CEB)

Our children and their teachers will muddle through math together this year, one way or another. Somehow, between our own meetings, we’ll help them with home lab experiments and toddler cooking projects. But I wonder, whether you live with children or with a spouse or alone: What are the lessons we’ll teach one another this fall? What are the words that are always on our minds? What do we recite to one another? What do we talk about when we’re just sitting around?

Most of us never meant to be teachers. But I wonder what hidden things we have to teach. And most of us are no longer students. But I know we still have a lot to learn.

Peace, 
Greg+