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| Marc Mullinax |
“It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, but neither are you permitted to desist from (beginning) it.”
— Rabbi Tarfon
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Robert Ratner, now Rabbi Emeritus at Asheville’s Congregation Beth HaTephila, was feted on March 9 by his congregation and the larger Jewish and civic communities for his 16 years of spiritual leadership.
His stepping down gives us, then, an example of what good spiritual living is all about.
If life is analogized to a river, we discover ourselves within it,
already blessed (and cursed) by those in that stream before us. During
our own sojourn in this flow of time, chances to clean up this river —
or not — arrive daily.
Leadership: If increases in membership are an index of leadership, then
one could call the 300% growth during his 16 years “wildly successful.”
But numbers alone do not reflect the quality of the
righteousness-spreading Ratner has begun, nurtured and sustained.
The good Rabbi has been one of our strongest voices of inclusion. In
his vision of the world, his leadership belies a bifocal framing: In
one focus he sees his own spiritual tradition. Also in focus are the
other traditions, both religious and secular, that seek to repair this
world. Ratner’s spiritual leadership brings both sets of efforts into
one, and thus his part of the river is cleaner.
Diversity: To this outsider to the Jewish faith, it seems Judaism runs
as deep as or deeper than any other religious tradition. Its depth of
history and resources uniquely position it as one of the world’s truly
wise traditions. At its bedrock level, this depth dimension (as it does
in any world religious tradition) exposes itself most in acts of
compassion. If the index of one’s depth of heart finds its calculus in
service to the unpopular, then Ratner’s commitment to Manna Food Bank,
Center for Diversity Education, and Habit for Humanity all exhibit a
calling of The Holy One to love all Its diversity.
Ministry of the New: “Most things have not been done yet.” Many of us,
at whatever age, have already begun — and maybe completed — our slide
into “settling” and compromising. We have become pretty comfortable
with the comfort of the old, tried and (apparently) true. The work to
which we are called, however, is never accomplished. Ratner was ever
challenging his congregation to repair the world in which they were
called to live responsibly. As a leader and model of diversity in one
of this world’s oldest faiths, Rabbi Ratner is to be celebrated as a
renewing stream in this drought time of spiritual-leadership models.
Ratner taught his congregation that we can, and we must, begin our
work, but we shall not complete it, Thus, it is ever more incumbent
upon us to inspire our fellow stream-swimmers in our common work, so
that a future generation will look back and marvel: “How did you find
the courage to stand up and do what needed to be done?” May such be so!
The good Rabbi’s model of enlightened spiritual leadership should
endure at least that long. And is not that enough?
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Marc Mullinax teaches the academic study of religion at Mars Hill
College. His views are the product of his own experiences and thus may
differ from some at the college. He may be reached at
mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.
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