Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris Induction Speech on Sunday 29th January 2012: A Lily Among the Thorns
Once, a young woman found herself quite alone in the big city. Without knowing how to find her way, she set off in search of a place to call home, in search of nurture and sustenance. And, though lost and late, she found nevertheless an open door and a warm fire and some comfort, so she resolved to stay a short while. And in time she felt cared for and sustained, so she remained. Slowly, as more time passed and without her hardly noticing, she discovered that her contentment had grown into something deeper, something more passionate. And she realised that she was in love. ‘Like a lily among the thorns, so is my darling... like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved…’, she dared to think. For in the first flush of love, that is what all lovers believe of their beloved. Of course, time passed and the dawning realisation of her beloved’s imperfections began to emerge. But she always believed in her beloved’s intrinsic potential and so the story went on and how it will end is yet to be written; only time itself can tell how such a story will carry on.
And yet, and yet I think this young woman, now not so young, still carries that first flush of youthful enthusiasm in her heart. Her beloved is still a lily among the thorns, an apple tree among the trees of the forest. Her beloved is truly unique, precious, splendid; for all its flaws and foibles its value is far above those oft cited rubies. And of course you all know that to be true, because you know that the young, now not so young woman, in my story is me and that this particular beloved of mine is Leo Baeck College.
I came to Leo Baeck College first at the tender age of twenty-two, an hour late, having been lost on a bus somewhere between Muswell Hill and Finchley. But the College was gentle and generous and forgiving to me. Thus I delighted to sit in its shade, sweet fruit of knowledge in my mouth. For six long years the College gave me a place to nurture my soul and my intellect and when I was done, I left it to make my own way in the progressive Jewish world. But my heart remained at the College. So it was that I was rarely as happy as the day I was finally asked if I might teach a little at the College – it was more than a home-coming to me. I felt I had finally prevailed; at long last my love of the College was reciprocated.
And there matters might have remained but for the great confluence of timing, as is the case in all good love stories. Last year, the College’s Board of Governors announced a search for a new principal and I, by happy coincidence, was very nearly finished with my PhD and in a space where I was ready to move on from my synagogue work. Leo Baeck College tugged at my heart strings and to my very great good fortune that pull was returned. The place that had once nurtured me was offering me the opportunity to respond in kind: ‘Sustain me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples,’ it seemed to call.
And that is the story of how I stand here before you today. It is a peculiar sort of standing before you, recounting this story. In the history of the Leo Baeck College, I am not its first principal; I am certainly not its first love. But I am the first to have an induction, a public event to pledge myself to the College, to its welfare and well-being. I am the first to stand before you in this way and announce my passion for its success and failures, for its flaws and virtues, for its heritage and its future.
Leo Baeck College is a lily among the thorns of modern European Jewish history; an apple tree in blossom when all around is merely forest. But blossom is only the hope of fruit. For an apple tree to do more than merely blossom takes attention, it requires careful pruning, watering, praying for the sun. Sometimes a healthy dose of manure is required. Often protection from small, furry, mammalian and avian predators is called for. To gain a healthy, bountiful crop of fruit from a fruit tree requires the symbiotic relationship of gardener to garden. And a good gardener creates not merely a garden, but a פרדס, a paradise.
And that is what I vouchsafe to you all this afternoon; my promise to tend the College, to nurture it into more than just blossoming but into bearing fruit. I promise to prune where pruning is required and to water its roots and pray for a fair climate. I will do the hard and sometimes smelly work that requires getting my hands dirty for the College’s well-being. I will do my utmost to protect the College from whatever harm may lie in its way. And if I am dedicated and driven, Leo Baeck College may do more than blossom, more than produce fruit; for the College has all the potential it needs to become a פרדס, a paradise of progressive Jewish learning that can nurture our whole community.
At the core of Leo Baeck College is the ל and the ב of Leo Baeck. ל and ב are לב, heart. At centre of this potential paradise is the heart of progressive Judaism in the UK and Europe. In biblical and rabbinic times the heart was the seat of the intellect; in the contemporary Western world the heart is the seat of the emotions, most especially love. The לב of Leo Baeck can be both – the intellect and the passion, knowledge and emotion, the production of rabbis and educators who excel in academics and empathetic leadership. The beating heart of progressive Judaism in the UK and Europe; a flourishing paradise of progressive Jewish learning; a lily among so many other thorns, an apple tree not merely in blossom, but bowed down heavy with golden delicious fruit ripe for the picking; these could all be, and I will work hard to ensure are, Leo Baeck College – a place for us all to continue to love.
Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris Induction Speech delivered on Sunday 29th January 2012
