Rabbi Elizheva Hurvich

Reb Zusya of Hanipol taught, “when I pass from this world, I will not be asked at the heavenly gates, Why were you not Moses? They will ask me, ‘why were you not Zusya?’”

When I was a child I wondered if a person’s life was measured by the number of breaths one took or the number of words one spoke? As a girl whose mother died when I was a baby, these were natural questions– along with why are we alive? And what will I do with my “one precious life?”  My dad raised me in a house in the Redwoods with exposure to eclectic Jewish traditions, including the nascent Congregation Kol Shofar, Shabbos Shul, the Rock n’ Roll Rabbis, Joseph and Nathan Segal, and my extended family in the Deep South, Birmingham, Knoxville, Atlanta. 

Judaism has been a connective and generative through-line in my life. In college I joined my first Jewish women’s Rosh Hodesh group, aligning myself with the rhythms of the moon and to cycles of the Jewish calendar.  After college, following a call to explore Judaism more deeply, I moved to Mt. Airy in Philadelphia, home to the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, P’nai Or, the Shalom Center and Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi (z”l, may we remember him and his blessings.)

Walking into Rabbi Marcia Prager’s class on the “Mystical Alef Bet,” she was teaching on the 12th letter, the Lamed, whose shape is like lightning, or the number 7, with a vertical line reaching up. The name of this letter comes from the Hebrew root which also means “to teach” and “to learn,” as well as academy and student. I saw, as if a physical vision, a giant letter lamed, reaching up to heaven, integrating the information horizontally, and passing it down to the next lamed below. The room was filled with chains of lameds— and I felt myself in that chain of transmissions!

I became a Jewish teacher and have had the honor of opening the heart- and mind-gates of hundreds of students. Serving as Rosh, educational head of Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, CA for a decade, my proudest gift was to partner with Rabbis David Cooper, Sandra Razieli and Burt Jacobson (z l) to develop a YOM SHALOM / YOM SALAAM celebration, marking the shared cultures of Palestinians and Jews in the Middle East.

When training to officiate weddings with my friend and teacher Rachel Brodie, I found a name for my spiritual leadership, “Lev Shomeah,” a listening heart. It is my highest goal in my spiritual leadership to listen and to help open doors to seekers. When I die, many years from now, I hope that part of my legacy will be that people are left with a glowing feeling that I helped to connect people in the best possible ways.

When I turned 50 I did two audacious things: I applied to rabbinical school and I bought a pair of roller skates. After years that have stretched and grown me, I stand ready to receive this ordination. I thank the many who have been on this journey with me– teachers, students, and friends. Thank you for your companionship and love!