Rabbi Howard Morrison

This Shabbat, Friday night and Saturday, marks my father's 25^th Yahrzeit, the 23^rd of Sivan. When I started at Beth Emeth in the Summer of 2000, I had just completed reciting Kaddish for my father, and I was still reciting Kaddish for my mother who had passed away three months after my dad.

My father's Hebrew name was Reuven ben Moshe. It is striking that at the outset of today's Parsha, Moshe (Moses) assigns delegates for each tribe, starting with the tribe of Reuven. 

My father was one of six brothers. Five of them were raised in two foster homes, with my dad and two younger brothers being raised by an Orthodox family in the Bronx. While my father received a very basic form of Jewish education, he grew up in an Orthodox observant foster family.

Fast forward, my father met my mother while attending university in Boston. Together, they raised me and my three siblings. My parents were early members of the Young Israel of Brookline. There, my dad was a virtual one-man house committee and was completely devoted to the synagogue. Some of you know the story that on one particular Shabbat, as the Ark was opened, one of the Torah scrolls almost fell out of its slot. During the week, my dad and I went to the shul alone at night, and my father fastened golden link chains across both levels of the Ark. On the following Shabbat, when the Ark was opened during services, the glow of the new chains illuminated the entire sanctuary. Only then did the members understand what my father had done during the preceding days.

My father insisted that his children attend Jewish day school all the way through high school. He was proud of my decision to enter the rabbinate and visited me at my previous two shuls. He had remarked to me at one time that he envisioned me becoming a rabbi in one more shul during my career. How did he know about Beth Emeth before I did? While he never got to see me here, I feel his and my mother's presence every day.

May the Neshama of Avi Mori, my father and teacher, be bound in the bond of life eternal.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Howard Morrison
Avraham Tzvi ben Reuven (proud son of Ruben Morrison, z"l)