Rabbi Bernard Gerson (Aleksei Kolesnikov)
Rabbi Bernard Gerson has been at Rodef Shalom since 1993, with one of the longest careers among his colleagues in the region. Gerson received his ordination 20 years ago from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America after receiving a BA in Jewish studies from Brandeis. Rabbi Gerson and his wife, Sue, have two children, Elliot, 19 and Jenny,17.
WITH 18 years behind him at Rodef Shalom, Rabbi Bernard Gerson describes his synagogue as the smallest big shul, a synagogue that offers a full range of services but has an intimate, family feel.
Since Rodef Shalom participated in a program called Synagogue 2000, Gerson has led his congregation in new ways to combine devotion to tradition while innovating to meet peoples spiritual needs.
Rabbi Gerson is a teacher at Denver Jewish Day School, and highly values the ability to help students and adults get in touch with their spirituality through learning.
Rabbi Gerson feels great pride in his congregants and the Denver community. This keeps him committed to joining congregants in navigating their spiritual journey.
Q: What is going on at Rodef?
A: Rodef is always continuing its journey of spiritual growth. We do so through our adult education, our religious school and our new musical programs.
We have Shabbat with a Backbeat and Shabbat Under the Stars collaborations between the cantor and myself, trying to create a more lively spirit in services with instruments and vocal music, which have been very enjoyable.
We also have a weekly event, Minyan on the Move. Every Tuesday we meet at a different persons home to pray. This is a very valuable way for people to get in touch with their spiritual internal mechanisms because we are in places where people spend their days and nights. That allows for home cooked prayer.
We get to appreciate peoples diversity and the common denominators of the home, a place suitable for our communication with G-d.
Q: What makes your congregation stand out?
A: The sense of closeness that congregants feel toward each other, the close relationship between the clergy, the members and staff.
We are in the middle of the spectrum in the community; we were one of the first congregations to propose egalitarian participation on the bimah and we continue to add inclusions to our participation and worship in the synagogue.
Q: What makes you stand out as a rabbi?
A: Primarily my focus on teaching and youth teaching at Denver JDS, learning with our Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, teaching at the religious school and adult classes.
Teaching has been my natural inclination and my main method over time. Teaching is an earnest way of expressing my love as a rabbi, sharing my knowledge, and being around children is the best way to rejuvenate oneself.
Q: What quality is necessary for a congregational rabbi?
A: Patience and forbearance.
Starting with myself, I require the most patience out of everybody I work with. Religion is for human beings and everyone has needs and limits.
Giving people the space to express and cultivate themselves is what I find to be the strongest skill required for my work.
Q: What is your main goal for Rodef?
A: To help people engage in sacred partnership on many levels: with me; teaching; here in the synagogue; between husband and wife.
Judaism is not a religion that is best suited for individuals; it really is something that requires coming together in a chavruta.
Real success comes when I can create connections that allow people to feel something bigger than themselves
Q: How have you changed as a rabbi?
A: I used to think that the right method was a top-down method, where I would try to teach and inspire from my position of authority. I have changed the most in trying to involve myself with more people on their own level, to understand their context and identify with what they need.
Q: What is the hardest part of your job?
A: Managing my time. There are so many things I want to do and are expected of me. To get them done before Shabbat is a challenge.
Q: And the most rewarding part of your job?
A: Being able to accompany people through lifes journeys. I now am doing weddings for people who were in middle school when I arrived, so in some cases I have had the pleasure of being at the Bar Mitzvah, the confirmation and the wedding.
It feels so powerful to know I have been around for them and, in turn, to have gotten them to arrive at such a great place.
Q: Who is your greatest role model?
A: In rabbinical school, I did an internship with a Rabbi Jehiel Orenstein in New Jersey, a congregational rabbi for almost 50 years.
He had a very gentle yet inspiring way with people that really moved me. When I have my moments of frustration, or when life is challenging, I think back to his wisdom and insight about how to approach difficult situations.
Q: What initially made you want to be a rabbi? What keeps you committed?
A: I attended summer camp as a child, worked as counselor and moved up through administrative ranks. I really developed a love for the flow of daily Jewish life there.
I wanted to ensure that for myself, while being able to help others navigate their way through it.
I really knew at the end of high school that this is what I wanted to do.
My grandfather was a congregational rabbi who was loved by his community and really inspired me.
Im continuing to commit to what I set out to do and I feel like I have invigorated myself enough times over the last 20 years to keep it fresh.
Q: What is the greatest lesson you have ever been taught?
A: That there is always, always teshuvah. We have the best shot at it on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but on a smaller level, people have an incredible capacity to be able to forgive and move on.
To be a rabbi, you have to be on both ends of that; prepared to put things behind you and forgive. By the same token, because of close relationships I am a part of, I cant help but sometimes offend other people and I have to ask for forgiveness at times.
Its easy to talk about, but not so easy to do.
Q: What holiday do you most look forward to?
A: Yom Kippur. Its then that I get to see everybody, and everybody gets to see me.
It really is the high water mark of bringing together all my strengths, and I really feel like I glide through the day with the power of my congregation. There is an incredible nexus between us that is very powerful and apparent in services together
Q: What is your favorite Torah portion?
A: Reeh. It was the first one I taught to a student before I was a rabbi and I know it inside out. It has so much in terms of content. We read it on all the holidays.
I love when I get to read it at my synagogue; it feels like home to me.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
