Rabbi Aft Welcome Note

Dear Students,

I am excited to be the Hillel Rabbinic Educator this semester and look forward to meeting with many of you throughout the semester.  Last night was a wonderful beginning and many thanks to all of you who came to welcome me to my new position.

My office hours will be Monday nights from 7:30pm – 9:00pm at Starbucks on campus, Tuesday from 12pm-1:30pm, and then we will be having dinner and discussions on Wednesday nights from 6pm-7:30pm.  I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the Tu B’shvat Havdalah program on Saturday afternoon this weekend.

I recently returned from a Shabbaton on the Slopes near Anchorage, Alaska where we talked about the spirituality of tikkun olam, repairing the world.  We spent a significant amount of time talking about why it takes a tragic event (ie. an earthquake) to open our eyes to the needs of the people of Haiti.  We have known for years of the poverty and dire circumstances there and yet it seems that only now are people being so generous and willing to help.

I would like to hear your thoughts about what we might do as a campus community to help others, not only in Haiti, but in so many places where there are needs. We know that in Mishnah Sanhedrin, that if we save one life, we are saving an entire world and we all know there are lots of worlds we could save.

Please share your thoughts about why  sometimes it takes a tragedy to act and what we can do together to make a difference.

B’shalom,
Rabbi Bruce Aft
Rabbinic Educator

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