Rabbi Goldstein's Final Service at City Shul

Saturday, June 15, 2024 was Rabbi Goldstein's last service as our City Shul Rabbi, as she is now our Rabbi Emerita.

Below is the text from her final service.

The video link to the full service is here - an edited version of the sermon portion will be available in early July. Click HERE to view

Danny: how perfect that you have the Aliyah for the 3 fold benediction.

Rabbi Neal Loveinger, a long-ago assistant Rabbi at Kolel, who will be joining us at the gala by the way, wrote about this blessing, noting that Rashi teaches that the opening line telling Aaron to bless the people, “amor lahem—say to them… is a full (spelling, indicating:) do not bless them in haste, nor in hurried excitement, but with full consciousness (kavannah), and with a whole heart.”

I am so sure that you are going to serve City Shul with full consciousness (kavannah), and with a whole heart. I hand you this beloved community with full consciousness (kavannah), and with a whole heart.

Danny: my colleague, my mentor, and my friend, know that I am invested and committed to your success as the transition Rabbi of City Shul, and I know you are invested and committed to my successful transition to Rabbi Emerita. You know and feel the love this community and I have for each other. And you also know and feel my excitement and readiness for my next chapter. And you know and feel my deep respect for you. So I had you my Rabbi’s copy of the Siddur as a symbol of the depth of our joint prayers for this transition. I’m also handing you a copy of my sermon book, Red Shoes on the Bima, because your spirit is in every one of these through the years we together thought through themes and sermon ideas and even shared stories, endings, texts to help the other.

Rabbi Danny Gottlieb: May we both, and may this holy congregation, grow and thrive from this experience. Mazel Tov.