Rabbi Emeritus
Rabbi Elias J. Lieberman was born in Baltimore, MD, in 1953. He attended Vassar College, where he earned his A.B. degree in Drama, cum laude, in 1975.
Rabbi Lieberman was ordained in 1984 from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. From 1984 to 1990 he served as Assistant, and then Associate, Rabbi of Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, Maryland. In July, 1990 he accepted the call to serve the Falmouth Jewish Congregation.
Rabbi Lieberman has been actively involved in many social justice concerns during his rabbinate including freedom for Soviet Jewry, equal rights for gay, lesbian and transgender people, and furthering understanding between the Jewish and African-American communities. He is active in the effort to combat HIV/AIDS and is an eager participant in a variety of interfaith efforts. In December, 2005 he was appointed as an inaugural member of the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission.
Rabbi Lieberman has written:
“Judaism cannot be lived in isolation … to be a Jew is to be part of a community. Those Jews who actively affiliate with a synagogue are already making a significant statement about the importance, in their hearts and minds, of Jewish survival. Mine is the privilege, as rabbi, to encourage and counsel, to inspire, and be inspired by those whose lives intersect my own.”
“It is my fervent desire to see the Falmouth Jewish Congregation become a place where Judaism is enshrined as a vibrant force in our collective lives–a congregation eager to mine the riches of our tradition for inspiration; to fashion innovative interpretations of time-honored rituals to carry us into the future; to build bridges across chasms of alienation and despair; to create a legacy for our children which will nourish their aspirations; to try to find meaning in a world long on material comforts but short on the stuff of the spirit.”
To reach Rabbi Lieberman by e-mail: rebelias@comcast.net
RABBI'S THOUGHTS
October Musings
October Ted Kooser (from At Home, a chapbook) First one leaf yellows, loosens, falls and from the hole it fell from leaks a drop of cold, and then another and another and another till the twigs are black with cold against the blue, and with stiff fingers those bare twigs stuff clouds with snow for later or for sooner, [...]
Hyperdrive sensations
If you have ever seen any of the more popular science fiction television shows or movies of the past few decades (think Star Trek and Star Wars and their innumerable sequels and prequels), than you can probably summon up in your minds eye the image of what happens when a spaceship engages its “hyperdrive”--faster-than-light travel-- to hop-skip-and-jump halfway across the universe: the starry [...]
Discontent
With apologies to William Shakespeare’s Richard III, “Now is the summer of my discontent.....” Yes, I know that I have yanked that phrase out of its context and muddled Gloucester’s meaning, but the phrase captures so perfectly the emotional climate I have been experiencing these past few months: discontent...sadness.....despair....anger....vexation. Some of it has been occasioned by the unremitting assault [...]
“Who opens the eyes of the blind…”
Facebook...Google...Twitter...Apple....Amazon... Not a day goes by that any or all of these tech giants are not in the news, often in connection with troubling allegations about their abuse of the trust we place in them when we opt to make use of their sophisticated technologies that, in so many ways, make our lives easier. With new and massive data-breaches [...]
Door #1 or Door #2?
This year the month of March is book-ended by two Jewish holy days: Purim (Feb. 28/March 1) and Passover (Mar. 30 - April 7). The biblical books which explain the origins of both holidays present radically different understanding of the role of human agency in contending with existential threats to the well-being of the Jewish people. Purim, via the [...]
“Take me out to the ballgame…”
How do we know that God is a fan of baseball? Because the Torah clearly states that the world was created “In the Big Inning!” If you, too, are a fan of baseball, especially of the variety practiced by the Boston Red Sox, have we got news for you!! Thanks to the generosity of our members Lawrence Silverman & [...]
Dreaming Dr. King’s Dream
On Monday, January 15, No Place For Hate - Falmouth will host its annual breakfast commemorating the birth, and the legacy, of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will, at that time, honor Scoba Rhodes with the Civic Leadership Award for his decades of committed service to our community in pursuit of social justice. By way of [...]
Let the light of the chanukiah wax strong….
As I write these swords in early November, an unusual bone-chilling, crop-freezing cold front is bearing down on New England. Combined with our recent return to Standard Time, there is no denying that we are beginning our descent into winter in earnest. And that means, of course, our annual encounter with Chanukah. These are, in many ways and for [...]
End-of-Life Options
Despite the fact that the days between Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur are, typically, filled with many last-minute preparations for the fall holy days, this year I felt compelled to set aside time on Tuesday, September 26, to make my way to Beacon Hill, there to offer testimony before the Joint Committee on Health, in favor of Massachusetts 2017 “End of Life Options Act” [...]
Shelter from the storm….
We creep to our bed, and its straw mattress. We wait; we listen. The storm lulls off, then redoubles, Bending the trees half-way down to the ground, Shaking loose the last wizened oranges in the orchard, Flattening the limber carnations. A spider eases himself down from a swaying light-bulb, Running over the coverlet, down under the iron bedstead. The [...]