09/04/2024
Alrighty then, let this Adventures of Rabbi T newsletter begin.
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This first letter is ½ airplane seat reflection and ½ who I am and what I’m doing, with some bonus photos at the bottom.
I hope you enjoy it, and respond with comments and questions as you please.
So I’ll begin, here on this plane, seat 21K, wunderhund/wonderdog Pinzel asleep at my feet, Lea asleep at my right. I’ve just woken up.
I’ve chosen Deutsch as the language of the TV monitor, which means stumbling around to get to the flight map. We are still soaring over the Atlantic, so I can use a favorite word of my peer rabbis–we are in liminal time/space. Between here and there, feeling both what was and what will be. We’re often a little nervous in the great in between, sometimes even panicked, as I am too. Jewish tradition invites in the spirit of Elijah in these moments, with the hope that someone helpful will arrive, and that only good comes from this moment of change and trepidation. I look at my well-dressed German grandma seat-neighbor. Elijah? We’ll see.
This summer has long lingered in the liminal, with many milestone moments elevated by the finality of my time in Minnesota.
A slow and wonderful goodbye to Temple Israel in Minneapolis.
JEWBALAYA’s album release (https://linktr.ee/jewbalaya) and final performance.
Lea and I co-officiating the chuppah for our friends Rebecca and Eitan days before our departure.
Examining which possessions matter, which don’t. Purge, purge, purge. But ship the Les Paul and fly with the hand drum.
In a moment, perhaps in 3 hrs 59 min when we land, or perhaps a couple weeks from now, this liminal moment will end. I’ll be deeply embedded in this new chapter of life, meeting new congregants and new friends, finding my German voice, being a rabbi and human in Vienna.
It sounds exciting. I feel nervous. It starts now.
***
I am Rabbi Tobias Divack Moss, the new rabbi of Or Chadasch, Vienna’s progressive Jewish community.
After five years in Minneapolis working at Temple Israel, a wonderfully prolific congregation of 5000 members, 40+ staff, 4+ clergy, I wanted the experience of something more rabbinically intimate and personally challenging. Now I’ll be the lone clergy–and lone staff member–of this 200 person congregation, the only liberal congregation in all of Austria.
The community operates almost fully bilingually, German and English, which is a very good thing because my German is a work in progress.
My position is three-quarters time, which gives me the additional blessing of space and time. I like to stay busy. I like to learn. I like to contribute. But what will this extra quarter look like? Perhaps a small congregation elsewhere in Europe wants me to pop in once a month. Perhaps Lea and I can perform together more regularly. Perhaps I can get back to teaching guitar, a passion of mine which I’ve gotten paid for in the past. Perhaps I’ll create zoom classes and mussar groups for most of y’all back in the US. Perhaps I’ll start a business selling American widgets to Austrians. Time will tell. I’ll keep you posted.
And as I keep you in the loop, please let me know what you are most interested in hearing about: adventurous profiles of European Jewish communities, trials and tribulations of leading a small Progressive community, sermons and teachings, Pinzel photos in front of European castles… what’s your fancy?
Adventurously yours,
Rabbi T
