 Rabbi Thomas A. Louchheim
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 (520)-419-4816
Synagogue Staff Lay Leadership (2011-12) President's Message
Congregation Or Chadash 3939 N. Alvernon Tucson, AZ 85718 
Tel: (520)-512-8500 Fax: (520)-512-8600
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From the Desk of Rabbi Thomas A. Louchheim ...
Personally Speaking by Rabbi Tom Louchheim
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Jan./Feb. 2012 Understanding Boundaries
“A person who has knowledge has everything...Once a person acquires knowledge, what does he lack? If a person
does not acquire knowledge, what does he possess?” (Talmud, tractate Nedarim 41a)
As I look back on twenty-five years as a congregational rabbi, I believe (and I hope) that I have grown
both as a rabbi and a person. When people walk into my office, they often comment on how impressive my books
appear to them. “Have you read them all?” I am asked. “No,” is my response, “but I do use them from time to
time as resources for what I do.” My response never satisfied me. Three years ago, I decided I want to improve as
a rabbi and as a person. I hired a life coach and began reading books cover to cover. Often, when someone would
suggest a book for me to read, I would buy it and read it. I have found lately that my thinking has changed and
matured.
Let me share with you something that I have learned which has begun to have a profound impact on my
rabbinate. Wallace Stevens, the objectivist poet, once wrote, “We live in the description of a place and not in the
place itself.” By this he meant that one person’s reality or perception of reality is individual. Someone else’s perception
of the same event or reality may be different. That “reality” becomes not only the label by which that person
affixes events and people but also their boundary. A boundary or border limits how you define a place, a person
or an event. What is contained within those borders is the “reality.” What I have learned recently is those who
define their world in this way allow no growth, no improvement, and no new information in to inform a different
perception of that reality. The proposed fence on our southern border is to keep people out. Our Keynsian vs. Hayakian
economic philosophy allows for no compromise.
Our view of Palestinians and their view of us and Israelis
often do not allow for a sharing of honest grievances on
both sides.
Judaism is an interpretive religion. How your parents
or grandparents defined a proper Jewish practice is not
how you define it today. Where rabbis and synagogues feel
it is important to have boundaries on what a gentile may not
do in your synagogue, such a boundary – as boundaries do –
keep the entire family far away from any Jewish practice.
Our tradition understands that different people must approach
Judaism from their perspective. There is a Chassidic
tradition that if someone falls into a pit, you don’t yell down
and tell them how to get out. You don’t scold them that had
they done it correctly they would not have ended up down
there in the first place. You don’t send a rope down; rather
you get down in the mud yourself and help the person out.
I have gained the knowledge that labels and boundaries
are imposed by those who do not want to deal with
people who might be different or think differently than
themselves. I have gained the knowledge that there are
those who want to belong to our family, who want to contribute,
who have something important to teach us. I want
them part of my family, I want their contribution and I want
to hear their story.
Seek greater knowledge and nothing shall you lack. Rabbi Thomas A. Louchheim
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