This column was written for our July/August 2024 newsletter
Dear family of friends,
I am greatly honored and excited that your representatives have chosen me as your next rabbi here in Taunton. In the future, I intend to use this space to share a word of Torah, or a thought about upcoming holidays. Today I’d like to share a few words of introduction about myself, and the sort of rabbi I hope to become with you.
I believe that we’re all Jews by choice these days.
By this I mean that we all make choices about whether or not to engage in this tradition and its practices. And so, it is up to us as a community to create something that is worth engaging with. My job as a rabbi is to bring my skills, experience, and heart to this project.
I believe that anyone can learn to deepen their spiritual awareness.
By “spiritual awareness,” I don’t mean something necessarily esoteric and highfalutin. As the Torah says it is “very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart” (Deuteronomy 30:14). We all experience it at least now and then – in the awe we feel in the face of nature, in special moments with our loved ones, or sometimes when we light the Shabbat candles. And maybe upon occasion, also in prayers at the synagogue. Sometimes we find it in the words of the prayerbook, but more often simply in the experience of singing together. It’s not a question of how well we sing, but how present we are with ourselves and with each other when we do it.
We also find it in community. Whether connecting with friends in social events, working together to organize the needs of the congregation, or taking an interest in each others’ lives and health, there is holiness in the connections between us.
I believe that cultivating this capacity of spiritual awareness is one of the reasons that it is worth our time to engage with religious life – to become Jews by choice.
And I believe this is something we build together.
I bring many years of experience to my work here – experience both in Jewish life and in other disciplines (if you’re interested in the details, please check out my bio on our website jewishtaunton.com/rabbi-joshua-schreiber). But what I do with that experience is going to depend on you as well as on me. My goal for these coming months is to meet as many of you as I can. To hear about your lives, about what’s important to you, and how I and the synagogue community can be of service. I’d love you to stop by to have a chat in my office, or meet for a cup of coffee. Please reach out to me at or (774) 504-9962.
Wishing you a wonderful summer,
Reb Josh.
