Shalom, Temple Anshe Sholom! This is Rabbi Michael Weiss coming to you, currently, from down south to say that I am so excited to join you up north! In the coming months, I’m sure you’ll get to learn a lot about me and I’m looking forward to getting to know each of you as well, but I thought a bio wouldn’t be the most interesting route for my first TWIT article, so I’ll offer this instead.
I never thought I would end up finding a home in Florida, of all places, and when I interviewed, I never asked even once about hurricane season which I only later learned runs from the beginning of June to the end of November. We had a few storms here and there, but in 2024, Tampa Bay was rocked by two massive hurricanes in quick succession, right before and between the High Holy Days. Many of my congregants were displaced and we all worked together to rebuild, but some of the scars are still there. Emblematic of the damage done was the shredding of the roof of the Tropicana Dome where the Tampa Bay Rays, our local major league team, play baseball. Some (like my dad and brother) may call it the worst baseball stadium in the world, yet I came to appreciate indoor, air-conditioned baseball and it felt like we lost something important down here. The Rays had to find a new home for their last season but they were back in “the Trop” for Opening Day. It was only later that I heard that every team uniform that the Rays will be wearing this season and every jersey sold to fans in the stadium contains a small circle of material from the old roof, a way to remember the old as we embrace the new. To me, there is nothing more Jewish than that.
Our rabbis spent generations debating about how Judaism should move forward from the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and, as a result, found that the study of Torah, meaningful worship, and acts of loving kindness could serve the same purpose. Our Reform forebears worked tirelessly to craft a form of Judaism that could respond to and flourish in our modern or even post-modern era. We get to take on that same mission, to blend the old with the new, while never losing sight of the values and rituals that make us who we are.
In July, I know I’ll be playing ball in a new stadium, with a new team who cherish their own traditions and history. I’m excited to bring what I’ve learned from my rabbinate so far, but more importantly to learn from each of you about what you feel makes Temple Anshe Sholom so special. I cannot wait for my “opening day”, where each of us will be bringing that patch of precious material from our past, as we begin a whole new season of learning, listening, and living Judaism powerfully.
L’Shalom,
Rabbi Michael Weiss
