Sermon Honoring Peter Rubenstein
Friends and congregants,
It is my honor and privilege to give a rather special sermon today which I wrote for a very special person. As you may know, we are gathered here to celebrate Shabbat, to be sure, but also to celebrate Peter Rubenstein. It is Peter’s 80th birthday today and I couldn’t think of a more fitting way to mark this happy occasion than to wear black-and-gold and address the following words to him.
Peter has been a faithful, stalwart member of Agudas Achim for about four decades and stood loyally by Rabbi Jeff’s side. Upon Rabbi Jeff’s retirement, when I joined the community as the new rabbi, I had the pleasure of getting to know Pete. Almost nine years later, and Pete remains steadfast as ever.
Pete has fulfilled many roles in our community. For decades, he taught B-Mitzvah students, challenging them in his signature pedagogy: warm, thought-provoking, humorous and no-nonsense. Pete has served on Ritual Committees, bringing his reverent irreverence (or irreverent reverence, whichever you prefer) to stewarding Judaism at the synagogue. Pete reads Torah faithfully and skillfully, which I am sure is adding to a welcome cognitive reserve. Keep going, Pete! And at Kiddushes and Onegs, Pete holds forth on molecular biology, betraying his illustrious career as a professor in the medical school. I know that if I have a weird science question or a medical oddity that I’m curious about, I can come to Pete. Not since my highschool days have I been reminded of the divine rhythms of the Krebs Cycle. (I’m going to impress Pete here for a bit and call this chemical process by its scientific name: tricarboxylic acid cycle. If I were a student of Pete’s, I’d be very motivated to ace his exams!)
How does one honor a person like Pete, who is so ubiquitous and beloved in our congregation’s life? The only way that seems appropriate to me is through the study of the Torah Pete loves to wrestle and argue with. Pete’s insatiable curiosity deserves to be met with some Torah wisdom.
Because Pete is turning the big 8-0 today and because Pete’s name is Peter, and his Hebrew name is Pinchas, I decided to turn to some gematria: Hebraic numerology. Each Hebrew letter, from aleph to tav, is ascribed a number value too. The leter aleph is 1, beit is 2, gimmel is 3, and so forth. Yod is ten, chaf is 20, lamed 30, mem 40. You get it. Once you get to the letter Peh, the letter for Pete or Pinchas, guess what?
The numerical value of peh is 80. Perfect for such a birthday! Psalm 90:10, after all, says that ‘the span of our lives is seventy, or given the strength, eighty’ – ‘v’im bigvurot sh’monim shanah’. Truly, like Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt at 80, Pete’s vigor remains unabated and his eyes undimmed. How do we know this? He is still able to read Torah! Pete, at 80, you’re just two-thirds of the way through, with the best yet to come, just like Moses.
If we continue with our gematria, we can discover more arcane wisdom. Each Hebrew letter is not only a number value but also carries a word meaning. Aleph comes from the word ‘aluf’, ox, and beit from house, gimmel from camel and so forth. Peh refers to the mouth – even the shape of the letter is of a little face with an open mouth, ready for speech. I could not think of a more perfect letter for Pete who teaches Torah, often in an impromptu and extemporaneous matter, and who loves to heckle the rabbi with words of Torah (and sometimes, good-natured provocation) from his seat! Our tradition has plenty to say about speech; about its benefits and risks, about how to use it wisely or avoid using it foolishly. It is Pete’s speech that is unique and beloved in this congregation; it is how he marks his presence and how he engages with the big ideas of our holy tradition.
I am not going to quote Psalm 141 which states ‘set a guard over my mouth, oh Eternal’, because Pete’s contributions are important and we want more of them. Rather, let me bless and honor Pete with the words from Psalm 19, which he loves to sing in a beautiful tune: ‘yih’yu l’ratzon imrei fi, v’hegion libi lefaneicha Adonai tzuri v’goali’ – ‘may the words of my moth and the prayer of my heart, be acceptable to You, oh Adonai, my Rock and Redeemer’.
Is it a coincidence that God’s Name here it ‘tzuri’, ‘my Rock’ or ‘rock’? No. Because Peter, Pete’s secular name, also means ‘rock.’
This is so apt. Pete, I know that Jewish life is your rock (I might even catch you being spiritual now and again, but I promise I won’t tell anyone else). Likewise, you are our rock. Your steady, solid, dependable presence has been four decades of blessing to Agudas Achim, to our congregants, to Rabbi Jeff, and above all, to myself. You are a wonderful congregant but also a dear friend. To put it in your words, ‘we have fun together.’
Ad me’ah v’esrim, dearest Pete. Until 120. May you have fun here at Agudas Achim for many years to come, and share your Torah, your light, love and laughter with us. We are so lucky to have you. Shkoyach and mazal tov!
